Today is #InternationalWomensDay | 5 Favorite Comic Book Women

So I put together my 5 favorite Comic Book ladies! 

Mockingbird

My introduction to Barbara Moarse aka Mockingbird was in Hawkeye's first limited series where the plucky SHEILD agent stole Barton's heart. They were meant to be together - even though she was raped by the Phantom Rider, Hawkeye acted like a complete dick about it, she was replaced with a Skrull (the Long retcon) and then died...only to return and has been given some spotlight in Bendis's avengers.

Vindicator 

I'm not a big fan of taking a male character and making a female version of that character and adding She dash...in the case of this Canadian hero, she took on the mantle of her fallen husband, the original Guardian because of duty and not because she was a female version of him but an extension (and even surpassing him IMO). So she may have started out as the 2nd Guardian, she soon became the Vindicator.

M (Monet St. Croix) 

This is one tough chick who is currently running with X-Factor investigations. She's written so well by Peter David. She comes off as standoffish and too tough but she has her reasons AND she can back up those checks her mouth write. She has a long history, and very well fleshed out history (not an intentional pun on her costume) and that's the best kind of character.

Songbird

She's a former villain who, when I first was introduced to her, was part of the Thunderbolts/Masters of Evil. This is the kind of character who displays an inner strength, and develops into a strong leading character. She's always been associated with the Thunderbolts in most of their different runs. She's gone from that background character to be one of the ones I think of when I think of the Thunderbolts (not including the poorly handled Current 2012-2013 run)

Michonne

She may be the most comic book-y character in the Walking Dead, but this lady is so badass that one cannot help but love her. The words to describe her are all positives but the best one that comes to my mind is Strength. She's a survivor and a strong silent type which is a category usually reserved for men.

*Note: My 1 year of being on tumblr/bloggin is coming up March 22 and my very first post was Michonne's appearance in the season 2 finale for the Walking Dead on the TV

RIP Stompin' Tom Connors (1936-2013)

I don't think any performer has ever been so true to one's country as Stompin Tom Connors. 

Upcoming Games You may not have heard of

These are 3 upcoming games by indie developers that look like they will be very fun to play. In fact I know this to be 1/3 true because the Project Zomboid 'alpha/beta' is available and I've been playing some of the builds.

Star Command (iOS)
http://www.starcommandgame.com/

This looks like a fun casual spaceship building, space exploring, alien fighting game. I really like the graphic style (old school) and the fun attitude - kind of like Space Quest.

Project Zomboid (PC)
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/

A survival horror meets the Sims but instead of building a house you  fortify a house. Instead of keeping your Sim happy, you need to keep him/her alive. Not only do you need to gather supplies to live, but must avoid hordes of the undead while doing so.

FTL: Faster Than Light (PC)
http://www.ftlgame.com/

FTL is a spaceship simulation roguelike-like. Its aim is to recreate the atmosphere of running a spaceship exploring the galaxy (like Firefly/Star Trek/BSG etc.)

My Top 10 TV Shows – in no particular order…

10) WKRP in Cincinnati

Ran from September 18, 1978 to September 20, 1982

When I was a kid I watched more TV then I do now, in fact back then I probably watched way too much TV. With that, I still remember WKRP as being one of my favorite shows, which is saying something from the copious amounts of TV I did watch. The show stuck out because it had a great cast of characters, from nerdy Les Nessman, slimy Herb, sexy Loni, and cool Dr .Johnny Fever…and even leaving out the rest seems like I’m doing a disservice. The setting wasn't the typical household one used in most sitcoms which made it different. 

9) The Venture Bros

Ran from February 16, 2003 to ongoing

The Venture Bros has been one of the most consistent & enjoyable shows that meshes old time pulpy action shows with a nerdy-as-cool factor that suits me just fine. I can re-watch an episode and usually pick up some new small (but cool) detail and I can’t say that about the others. Each episode & season flows into one another as if each detail had been pre-planned far in advanced, although listening to the creators, they hadn’t been.

8) Breaking Bad

Ran from January 20, 2008 to ongoing (1 final season left to go)

One of the newer shows that I have thoroughly enjoyed from episode to episode. It builds on top of its self. It has a cool premise – boring, almost defeated guy gets cancer – needs to leave his family some money after he dies, cooks and sells meth. I was typing out some words to best describe the show but really I can sum it up in one – tension. The whole series is filled with tension, although it does break it up with some humor, sadness and some badass action.

Side Note on recent shows: This goes for Dexter, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. I left Walking Dead & Game of Thrones off this list because they aren’t far into any amount of seasons. I keep this is mind because I loved the first few seasons of Dexter but the previous 2 I was kind of ‘meh’ over which takes it down a bit. So if Game of Thrones & Walking Dead can maintain their quality then maybe in a few years they would go on this list.

7) Red Dwarf

Ran from February 15 1988 to April 5 1999; Back to Earth TV movie; possible new season to come.

A British sci-fi sitcom that had one of the best casts ever put together. The premise in a nutshell: A mining ship disaster kills the entire crew except for one man – Dave Lister – who is a lazy slob. He has his bunk mate Arnold Rimmer who is dead but is back as a hologram. There’s a dude who evolved from Lister’s cat and a mechanoid Kryten – think of a less proper C3PO and finally the ships computer who has been losing his marbles over the 3 million years.  The sets are cheap but the writing and acting is top notch. Now I did get the latest TV movie Back to Earth, which sadly wasn’t very good L

6) The IT Crowd

Ran from February 3 2006 to… a season 5 had been set but cancelled…so maybe end date would be July 30 2010

A British sitcom that revolves around a couple IT workers for a big company. This is like nerd based comedy that done very clever and doesn’t try too hard – like Big Bang Theory does – at least Big Bang seems to try too hard in my opinion. The show has short season but each episode has such an impact.  The two leads Roy and Moss are perfect as smart ass IT workers. This show appeals to me because I work in the same IT role, so granted the show may not work for all people.

5) Oz

Ran from July 12, 1997 to February 23, 2003

My first experience with adult TV. I started watching Oz from the start on Showcase back when and this show was just so raw and mesmerizing that you stood up and took notice when it came on. Featuring a large cast of characters set in a maximum security prison. You got the point of views from the prisoners, and the prison staff.  It does feature a lot of violence, tension and some hard people facing off against other hard people.

4) Band of Brothers

Ran from September 9, 2001 to November 4, 2001

Technically a TV miniseries, but it’s definitely not a movie and it did run on HBO so it qualifies for favorite TV show. A well done (and expensive) World War 2 show following the lives, battles, loses and victories of Easy Company during their tour through D-Day til the end of the war. It was gritty and realistic and just had such a big impact.

3) South Park

Ran from August 13, 1997 to Currently still airing

I watched the premier episode when it debuted (at like 9:00 pm to boot) and I remember hating the show. I did stick with it and while the first few seasons were good, it was the later season when they took on more topical ..um..topics that the show excelled.

2) Mystery Science Theatre 3000

Ran from November 11 1988 to August 8 1999

…or known as MST3K, is a show about guys watching really bad movies and just making funny comments. It’s become a bit of a nerd have-to-know in recent years but back when I was flipping channels around I came across the show and just thought it was brilliant. You can still enjoy the stylings of the MST3K guys at rifftrax.com   

1) The Prisoner

Ran from September 29 1967 to February 1 1968

This was another British show but not a comedy. It’s about a secret agent who gets taken to a strange island because he has information that some shadowy people want but won’t just torture him for it. It’s a very strange show with a bizarre setting and even more bizarre characters.  There was a 2009 remake/re-imagining that was ok, but the end result wasn’t as good as the original show.

My 3 Movies Better Than the Book

Everyone keeps saying how the book is always better than the movie. Hell I assumed that in my Hunger Games movie review. Then I thought about it and no, that’s not true at all. I know from doing searches on the topic that this isn’t the case either but I’m only presenting movies where I’ve read the book and saw the movie (or at least got far enough into the book to get a feel for it).

Here some my ‘movies better than the source material) and they contain MASSIVE SPOILERS:

Kick Ass

Source material: The Comic book about a regular kid who wants to be a superhero.

Change(s) made: Most of the movie follows nicely with the comic except for one major plot point – the girlfriend. In the movie Kick Ass reveals to this chick he has a crush on. At first she’s kind of pissed, but begins to accept it and even starts falling hard for Kick Ass. In the comic when he reveals himself she gets pissed…so pissed that she gets her boyfriend Carl to punch out Kick Ass and later sends Kick Ass a picture of her blowing him…

 Why the change was better: It’s a serious letdown. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she just decided Kick Ass was a crazy person, no she had to go over the top with her disgust. It’s not even that it was NOT a happy ending, but it almost feels like salt in the wound.

The Watchmen

Source material: Every comic book nerd should have read this by now. If you haven’t AND you’re not a comic book nerd, still read it, it’s amazing.

Change(s) made: It’s all about how the movie ends. Up until that point the movie is pretty faithful to its source material and that was a major accomplishment to begin with. Both the comic and the movie end with major a major disaster that kills millions of people in an attempt to stop the United States and Russia from going to war (Nuclear war!). In the comic this is done by a careful crafted scheme of a potential alien invasion (see Giant Alien Squid). In the movie Dr. Manhattan gets the blame and even accepts the blame.

Why the change was better: People knew about Manhattan, they knew he was the only one true super powered being with the ability to cause such destruction. The cold war countries now think they have a common, all powerful, enemy that allows them to set aside their differences and focus on. In the comic some random giant alien gives that same result (set aside differences) BUT nothing is known about the alien. Human beings have no way of knowing the potential threat, if it’ll happen again, or even a way to begin to tackle the issue to prevent it (how long can the threat last?). In the movie the threat of Dr. Manhattan is well known, they know he could return at any moment (the threat could last longer) and they can begin to build a defense since they know something of his powers.

Lord of the Rings

Change(s) made: Ok I admit, I started to read the books years and years ago. It’s not an easy book to read with all the pages of description on (seemingly) trivial things and the elvish stuff.  The movie cuts a lot of this out but showing and implying. Hell even the movies are a full day of watching and it still holds my interest. Add to the overall tone some characters got cut…ok Tom whatshisface got cut and that was definitely a change for the better.

Why the change was better: It’s easy to have a picture describe something that literally took a thousand words. This may seem like a copout as a book that can describe things so that you get a clear mental image is a sign that the book has done its job well. Yet LoTR the book was just too much. Sure there’s no major plot point that I read of that was different since I didn’t finish the books, but it was that I couldn’t finish the books that makes the movie better.

Top 10 Most Underrated Movies

In no particular order I thought I'd share some of my favorite movies that haven't gotten a lot of spotlight OR they're shrugged off due to some goofy reason.

1. Dog Soldiers
One Line Summary: Group of British soldiers try to survive against a pack of werewolves.
- Good small time action/horror movie from the creator of the Descent, Doomsday & Centurion. It's tense, bloody and even has some humor.

2. Ravenous
One Line Summary: 1840's US Army coward takes on a charismatic cannibal.
- Excellent thriller with a great cast and some humor mixed with gore...but to break the pattern

3. The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
One Line Summary: Overhyped "Comedian" makes good action-comedy flick
- I love the whole concept of this movie about a Rock n Roll detective uncovering a conspiracy in the music biz.
Note: If you can track down the 4 issue comic series, do so...

4. Miracle Mile
One Line Summary: Boy meets girl, they fall for one another...on the eve of nuclear war.
- This movie has a slow burn that build into a great tense movie, very weird but very cool

5. Strange Days
One Line Summary: Weird movie about privacy & technology with a cyberpunk like undertone...one line wouldn't do it justice
- Sleazy characters doing sleazy things but overall very cool concept and great visual style.

6. S.F.W.
One Line Summary: Teenagers held hostage for 36 days in convenience store become celebrities and then try to survive the media frenzy.
- Gritty movie that has a lot of tongue-in-cheek moments

7. The Frighteners
One Line Summary: Guy who can talk to ghosts must battle a dead serial killer
- Billed as a horror-comedy but light on the horror, still it's a great movie from Peter Jackson pre-LoTR.

8. Deadly Friend
One Line Summary: Nerd brings a girl back to life using his robot smarts and science!
- Good cheesy fun, not cheesy stupid fun, but plain old cheesy fun fun...

9. Phone Booth
One Line Summary: Sleazy guy trapped in phone booth by sniper
- Excellent performance by Colin Farrell and the limited set piece makes the movie all that much better

10. FAQ about Time Travel
One Line Summary: 3 buddies navigate a time portal in their local pub
Funny, trippy and even some emotion...highly recommended.

Capitals 2011-2012 season | 5 games to go

The 2006-07 season was the last time the Capitals did not qualify for the playoffs...and this season isn't looking good with just 5 games to go.

It's doubtful we'll catch Florida for the SE division. That means we have to catch Buffalo, who just crushed the Caps last night 5-1.

The start of the season had so much potential and started so good...

we'll see how the next 5 games go but they've been playing shaky (almost all season) so it's almost at that point of no return.