Recommendations and Reviews Article by aviewaskewed, 03:05 AM 26th Sep Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Probably bound to be a short one this week. For Dennis Weilamann, beloved brother and uncle, who always supported me and this whole writing thing of mine, and faced the end without fear. Had a bit of personal tragedy over the last couple of days, my Uncle lost his battle with cancer on Friday, so I would expect any updates to the site this week to be erratic as we deal with that as a family. It’s a sad thing, but I think we’re all coping really good, and I know he wouldn’t have wanted me to take a week off just because he passed. But with that said, nothing much interesting really happening in comics this week. Just the usual hype and no big announcements about anything, so there’s really not much for me to rant about this week. So I think I’ll just make mention of some books I think you guys should read, my thoughts on Bill Clinton’s Fox News blowup, a little bit of what I think is going on in the wrestling business, and thoughts on the FullMetal Alchemist movie for those who were thinking of buying it but hadn’t, and the new DBZ movie release. That should give us more then enough bang for your buck…if you actually paid anything to be reading this now of course. I’ve been really getting into the Hellblazer series of late. John Constantine is one of the most interesting and complex characters in comics and it’s easy to see why this is a flagship book for Vertigo. Most all of it available in trade from DC/Vertigo, it’s worth your time to track down and check out. Another series ANYONE who likes super heroes should devote some time to tracking down and collecting is the just finished JSA. Granted, I think any Justice Society material is worth your time, but I always feel like the best way to hook somebody into something is to offer them the best, most current incarnation, and point them backwards from there. JSA is about the Justice Society of America, the first super team in history (it’s not just hype, it’s true) rebuilding the team from the ashes of the defeat they were handed during the super crappy Zero Hour mini from DC. The cast consists of the original survivors training the next generation of heroes. It’s also an essential read if you’d like to see where many of the seeds of the ever evolving DCU, and the just past Infinite Crisis mini came from (Black Adam’s ascension, Hawkgirl’s introduction and her moving up to eventually becoming a Justice Leaguer, the return and revitalization of Hawkman, Power Girl’s return to prominence and the seeds planted for the revelations of her origin, The seeds for the return of Hal Jordan and the Spectre’s subsequent rampage) you really need to check out this incredible series. I believe it has been completely collected over ten volumes, with trades of Tie-In minis (JLA/JSA Virtue and Vice, JSA All-Stars, The Justice Society Returns!) also available. It gets my highest recommendations, though it does sadly lose a hell of a lot of steam once Geoff Johns left the book. Starman was a series launched after the events of Zero Hour and the dissolution of the JSA. Jack Knight is thrust into the family business of being a super hero when his brother David is killed in action. Strained relationship with his father Ted Knight the first Starman notwithstanding, Jack accepts the Cosmic Rod and the job. Starman is a wonderfully emotional tale of Jack’s slow transformation and acceptance into a super hero, and an examination of the bond between fathers and sons, and a really great bit of Golden Age revisionism and fan worship of the Justice Society thrown in for good measure. A top to bottom excellent series, collected completely between the covers of 10 trade paperback volumes, volume 3 is fairly hard to find though, and will probably cost you a bit more then cover, but is totally worth it. Moving on to some political stuff this week, did anyone catch President Clinton’s interview on Fox News? Or at least clips? I found it absolutely hysterical. He just completely turned the entire tone of the piece around on them as it was obvious they were hoping to try and make Clinton seem weak on terror and national security issues, but he pointed out that HE authorized killing Osama Bin Laden if caught, and that this administration now feels that Afghanistan is 1/7th as important as Iraq. I just love it when the biased news networks get to look badly like that, and this is indeed the first time I’ve heard him criticize the administration. Worth a look if someone like CNN has some of the footage up. I picked up both the FullMetal Alchemist: Conquerer of Shambala DVD and the DBZ: Rise of the Dragon DVD’s over the past couple of weeks. Now, I don’t consider myself any great reviewer, so this is going to be more a what I like, what I didn’t, nothing terribly technical involved with this. So let’s start with FullMetal. If you watched and enjoyed the TV show, you need to go get COS, if you have any interest in maybe buying the TV show on DVD, but haven’t started yet, I recommend going down to your local Wal-Mart and seeing if they’re selling the movie packaged with the first DVD of the TV series, like my local one was (which in the interest of disclosure, is also my employer, just throwing that out there for those who might think I have some secret agenda here). The movie itself picks up two years after the last episode of the TV series, and chronicles Edward and Alphonse Elric’s attempts to bring Ed back to his own world, against the backdrop of a pre-Nazi era Germany (Hitler is only days away from his failed Beerhall coup in fact). A great story about tolerance, and “where are they now?” mixed with some really eye popping animation sequences in spots, Conqueror highlights everything that made Alchemist such a great animated series to follow. Give it a look, big thumbs up from me. Then we go to Wrath of the Dragon. Frankly, the last few Dragonball Z movies really haven’t been worth getting of late. The last movie was good, but any of these movies when you read on the back and start watching it and see that it’s focusing on kid Goten and Trunks from during the end of the series, you’re pretty much guaranteed there isn’t going to be much here for anyone but the most hardcore of fans. Not to mention any Dragonball Z movie has the added hindrance of the animation to it is now at least 10 years old, so at this point in time, I think all DBZ releases should be ignored by only the most hardcore of fans, as we‘ve now hit the point where the creative well was obviously drying up, and it’s understandable for how long it went, but if you’re being asked to plunk money down on these? Nope, only if you’re hardcore into it, and even at that, I would recommend buying it discounted. Back to Rants