Saturday 7 July 2012

Films

Green Lantern: Extended Cut (2011)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation² #2 by Scott & David Tipton (with Tony Lee) & J.K. Woodward

This is marginally better than the awful issue one, but not by much. That showed us an adventure with the TARDIS crew in ancient Egypt, ending with them meeting the Enterprise gang in '20s San Francisco; this issue shows their perspective, having an 'adventure' on a water-covered planet before encountering the Doctor & co, in what is actually a Holodeck simulation (of course). Except their 'adventure' involves four or five pages of people discussing mining works, followed by a little bit of flooding. It's as thrilling as watching paint dry.

When the two crews get together things liven up a little, but it's all too brief. I say "brief" -- it's a 20-page comic, it's just hardly anything happens on each page. The Tiptons' dialogue is clunky, though that might just be the Trek style. Still, it doesn't wring right, often coming across like a first draft no one bothered to refine. Woodward's art is still awful, a loose mishmash of photo reference and indistinct long-shots.

With the two crews teaming up, and some mysteries that promise to be built upon (the cover for #3 features the fourth Doctor, Kirk and Spock), there's potential for this series to improve. But Woodward's art isn't going to do it any favours, and the kerfuffle over regular IDW Who scribe Tony Lee leaving the book halfway through is concerning too. I don't hold out great hope.

Articles

Ron Perlman Is Hellboy Again For Make-A-Wish
by Brendon Connelly (from Bleeding Cool)



Reviews of Batman: Earth One from
ACB
by John Barringer
CBR by Doug Zawisza
iFanboy by Chris Arrant
IGN by Joey Esposito

They're all very positive, and make it sound enticingly intriguing -- not something you'd expect from yet another re-telling of Batman's origin story -- which is why I've decided to dive in and buy it.