Wolverine movie review

I saw the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie last night, an early Friday night show. My showing was half full, later shows looked much more full.



I enjoyed the movie, and felt I got my money's worth of entertainment. The opening credits reminded me of the opening of Watchmen.



I am not a Marvel fanboy by any means. The anti-military tropes of the Cold War and the Viet Nam war are really really dated. Last year's Iron Man was a good attempt to move on from these.



Deadpool as a wiseass was better than the finale's Deadpool-I-Have-No-Mouth-And-I-Must-Scream.



Why oh why does Wolverine have to stop and monologue in New Orleans before offing Creed? Oh, I forgot, its a superhero movie.



Professor X showing up at the end was a bit creepy. 'Nuff said.



What do I want next from Marvel? A Magneto/Iron Man team up. The two best acted roles in the Marvel film universe. Its such a natural! But it has to include Mystique, because, well, do I have to explain?

Watchmen review

I watched the film without having ever read the graphic novel, so I've tried to think about it simply as a film. As such, I prefer V for Vendetta, which covers most of the same points.

Nixon's makeup was awful. The initial shot of Nixon from a distance had the best voice impression, from there it went downhill. Even in 1985 we knew Nixon was much more obscene out of the public eye, so his dialogue was as rubbery as his makeup. This Nixon is still the anti-communist cold warrior of the 1960 election, not the President who went to China and toasted Chou En Lai.

I thought the movie was effective at trying to give the feeling of simultaneity of experience that Dr Manhattan felt, by cutting back and forth in time. It also did acheive the effect of convincing me that anyone with God like powers is going to be aloof and apathetic to the human condition, that vigilantism becomes thrill seeking too easily. The other supers were more then Batman-esque characters. I think the movie is pretty clear that Ozymandias is both super-smart and super-fast, for example. They all can take a lot more punishment than the normal folks they beat up.

I enjoyed Rorshach's voice overs and dialogue, but as I said earlier, preferred V doing the same schtick. So V for Vendetta will remain my favorite Alan Moore adaption for a while. until they make a trilogy out of Lost Girls!

Wrestling with a superhero origins story

Since joining the SFABC and the excellent Writers of the Weird writing group, I've written two SF stories which I'm quite happy about. I've collected one polite rejection, which is also ok.

Now I'm thinking about a new story that is actually a comic book superhero story! I'm not a real spandex-clad fanboi, so this is something of a departure for me.

All I've got right now is the gimmick that creates Our Hero. Our Hero is actually a mild mannered nobody-in-particular until they die, and then are saved by an emergency heart transplant. The gimmick is that they receive the heart of a dead superhero!

So far the dead hero is named Aurion. I don't know much about him so far, except he has golden blood, psionic powers and he's dead. Oh, he's also from somewhere in the EU, because he's a member of a Euro supersquad. Other members

• Bruit - think Thing, but French. "Bruit, le smash!"
• Accelerondo - think Flash, but Italian.

Need more Euros, right?

ps - don't take this too seriously!

Sketch of comics hero team

Oh yeah, I like comics and manga, too. Sorry I forgot to tell you earlier.

I visited an Oscar site yesterday, and was happy to see that Cate Blanchett was nominated for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I feel really stupid for not realizing that this movie is a sequel.

Anyway, it got me thinking about a hero team set in the Elizabethean Age.

In the backstory, Elizabeth really is the Faerie Queen. The last test of a new Queen of Faerie is to seduce a mortal lover, but Elizabeth instead falls for the mortal and renounces her throne in Faerie. This choice angers a large number of powerful spirits, who were planning on using Elizabeth's control of two thrones (Faerie and England) to transform England into the New Atlantis. (Not the New Atlantis of Bacon, sorry.)

Our heroes:
Gloriana - Queen Elizabeth in disguise. Or is Elizabeth the disguise, and Gloriana her real identity?
Sir Francis Walsingham - the spymaster of Elizabeth in real life. Here, a bit more "hands on".
Dr. John Dee - a link between the scientific and the supernatural. Capable of a bit of wizardry with the help of the right artifacts.
The Golem of Prague - on loan to Dee from the Maharal of Prague, who made him. Think Ben Grimm with a Yiddish accent.
Thomas Phelippes - asistant of Walsingham. Inventor, cryptographer, etc. The Q to Walsingham's M. Deciphered the Book of Soyga for Dr Dee.

Our villains:
Phillip II of Spain - wants to conquer England and create his own version of the New Atlantis.
Duetia - beautiful faery, would be Queen of Faery if she could eliminate Gloriana.
John Kelley/Talbot - worked with Dr Dee but has fallen under dark influences.
Quetztlcoatl - the Aztec god, making a deal to stay alive in the New World's New World Order.
Talus - a mechanical man/animated suit of armor. Sometimes comic relief for being too literal.

I know you're asking already, who would win a Golem vs. Talus smackdown. Is the occult science of Dr Dee any match for the pure pagan fury of a God? Can Walsingham outwit Phillip? Can Gloriana save England from drowning beneath the waves if Duetia has her way? And what about Naomi?

Find out in our next issue!