Feb 12 2016

Deadpool Good. Don’t Take The Kids.

You may have heard that there is a movie based on the comic book character known as Deadpool. I have seen it. It is good. It is not for children. Don’t take the kids. Leave the kids at home. Can we be more clear?

Deadpool Infographic - Douchebags and Heroes

That’s not to say the Deadpool movie isn’t childish. It’s totally childish, in the best way. (See this Nerdist review for more.) I’ve often said that video games should have an “IM” rating for “Immature” instead of “M” for “Mature”, because often “Mature” means dirty jokes and boobies. The Deadpool movie has both of those, but it also does a nice job of showing the darker side of the title character, showing that it would kind of suck to be Wade Wilson.

More importantly for ‘Pool fans (of which I am one), the movie hits a lot of things from the comic books from which DP spawned (including the whole “it would suck to be Wade Wilson” part). That’s something that a lot of the reviews I’ve been reading seem to forget, or perhaps the critics simply don’t know the source material. (“Use the Source, Luke.”) Deadpool doesn’t break the fourth wall because the filmmakers thought it would be “cute” or “subversive”, he does it because that’s how the character is written. He knows he’s in a comic book, therefore he knows he’s in a movie. It’s a fairly simple concept that has huge potential, some of which was realized in this movie.

Also worth mentioning is that the Deadpool movie is not excessively long. It’s under two hours, which these days feels like a gift. We all know I loved The Avengers movie, and that was a long flick. But there’s something to be said for leaving people wanting more instead of dragging on for too long.

Something else: can we get some love for Leslie Uggams? She makes a great Blind Al, and the filmmakers manage to work her into the movie seamlessly, which was a pleasant surprise. I’m a little annoyed that she isn’t getting more attention. Here’s a classic video of her from a long time ago when she messed up the lyrics to a song but kept going anyway. I like Leslie. Always have.

The entire cast is solid, but Ryan Reynolds and T.J. Miller are getting enough press. Let’s hear it for Leslie Uggams!

Bottom line: the Deadpool movie is fun, violent, and not for young kids. You could do worse for a Valentine’s Day date film, depending upon who your date is.

If you want to pick up a good Deadpool comic, this one, the start of a fantastic run by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn, with art by Tony Moore (at least for awhile), is a good place to start: Deadpool Vol.1: Dead Presidents, currently available for only $3.99 on Comixology/Kindle, which is a freakin’ bargain. You can read the entire run via Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, which I’ve gone on and on about and is still a great deal.

I leave you with this image. It has nothing to do with Deadpool, it is a public domain image of a comic book featuring characters that are unlikely to ever get any screen time at all. Although Magno & Davey does have a certain ring to it…

FourFavorites0801

FourFavorites0801 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Oct 10 2015

Marvel Unlimited NYCC 2015 Deal

You’ve only got a couple more days for this deal but you know what a fan I am of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, which is kind of a Netflix for comics — you pay a fee (monthly or yearly) which grants you access to a library of Marvel comic books. Is it EVERY Marvel comic book? No. Is it over 13,000 Marvel comic books? Yes. Is it worth it? By Odin’s smelly sweat socks, of course it is. And this deal makes it even better.

Preview tons of digital comics for free, search back issues, and enjoy with Marvel.com’s special online reader.

Marvel is offering some free stuff if you get a subscription during New York Comic Con. Hit the link for details.

To clarify what’s in the digital library: old stuff and new stuff. There are some gaps. You might be reading a series and suddenly an issue is missing. But they do a pretty good job of adding newly published issues a few months after they come out. Mostly, though, you can read some really great comic books going all the way back to the 1940s. Recently examples of stuff I’ve read include:

The Man In The Ant Hill” from Tales to Astonish #27: The first appearance of Hank Pym, who would later become Ant-Man (and Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, and, weirdly, the Wasp).

Captain America: this particular collection of comics came out in the 80s and is very, very awesome. Steve Rogers is told by the U.S. Government that he can’t be Captain America anymore unless he does something that I can’t remember but would go against his beliefs. So he says “bite me”, gets a new costume, and the government finds someone else to be Cap. Worth getting the trade paperback even if you don’t get a Marvel Unlimited subscription. Also awesome are the early Captain American & The Falcon books. These comics deal with race in a way that is rare for the medium, and the comics were coming out during a time when racial tensions were high — and they talk about that. Falc is never Cap’s sidekick, and his first appearance (sans wings) features one of my all-time favorite costumes. It’s so cool it hurts.

Civil War: You know that upcoming Marvel movie? You can read all of the comics that inspired it. In this case, I actually think you’re better off reading it digitally as opposed to getting the trade paperback, because the tie-ins are very important and one of the things you can do with the Unlimited subscription is read by “Comic Event”. That either makes sense to you or you checked out a long time ago.

X-Factor: Peter David is one of my favorite comic book writers. He wrote my all-time favorite Hulk line, “Best way to make people of one mind is to bash their heads together. You can read his “Incredible Hulk” run, which is awesome. But his work on “X-Factor” is arguably even better because he takes less well-known characters and makes them interesting, funny, and he makes you care what happens to them. I’m talking about characters like Madrox The Multiple Man and Pip The Troll. There are lines that I’ve quoted to my wife and kids totally out of context that they agreed were hilarious.

Anyway, if you were thinking of getting a Marvel Unlimited subscription, you can get one now and also get some free stuff. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

Source: Marvel Unlimited NYCC 2015 | Marvel Unlimited NYCC 2015 | Comics | Marvel.com


Dec 01 2014

Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited For 75 Cents (DaddyDeal)

We have praised Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited in the past.  In fact, it was a Cyber Monday deal that got me to become a member, which I still am. (Want proof? Here.) Today, in honor of Marvel’s 75th Anniversary, they are offering a Cyber Week Deal where you can try Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited for 75 Cents.

Spider-Man fights his robot dad

They’re now calling it Marvel Unlimited (smart move, in our opinion), but it’s the same basic deal. You pay a monthly or yearly fee to read the many thousands of comics in Marvel’s digital library. As a practical matter, this means that you don’t get the new stuff right away, and you don’t get everything. For example, sometimes you’ll be reading, say, Peter David’s immortal run on The Incredible Hulk. Then you’ll get to an issue and it’ll skip a big stack of comics. Just an example… OK, that happened to me. But you know something? It doesn’t bother me that much. (It bothers me a teeny tiny little bit.) For what you pay, you get a tremendous amount of of content. I’ve read everything from recently published comics to stuff from the 60s and 70s, and even older. It’s essentially Netflix for Marvel comic books.

(A note on the image above: I have no idea if that comic book is available in Marvel Unlimited. It’s not what I would recommended you read even if it is. But full disclosure and all that.)

This particularly deal is not as good as the one I used back in 2011 (!!!) but it’s still pretty good. You get your first month of Marvel Unlimited (the service formerly known as Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited) for 75 cents. H/T to Jason Kaplan of The Howard Stern Show for pointing out this awesome DaddyDeal.

Here’s the text from Marvel.com, along with the code and the link. Be sure to read the disclaimers on Marvel.com. If you don’t cancel your subscription before the month is up, they’ll probably charge your credit card for the next month. So if you just want to try it out, you need to stay on top of that. But 75 cents for a month of unlimited Marvel Comics reading? Excelsior!

75 YEARS OF MARVEL COMICS FOR ONLY 75¢
From 12/1 12:01am EST to 12/4 3:00am EST
Get unlimited access to over 15,000 digital Marvel comics for one monthly price!
Use code MARVEL75 at checkout to get the first month of Marvel Unlimited for just 75¢!

via Cyber Week 2014 | Comics | Marvel.com.


Jun 07 2013

Deadpool Digital Comics On Sale (DaddyDeals)

DaddyDeal for today — Deadpool digital comics are on sale at Marvel.com. Or you could sign up for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited and read as much Merc With The Mouth as you want.

This deal is being offered in part to celebrate Deadpool’s new video game, which will be released on June 25, 2013. The game is Rated M, as in not for kids. Here’s a trailer. Don’t watch it at work. Or near your children.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X33NsF9h6U]

Comics featuring Deadpool are generally not kid-friendly, although at some point you may decide your kids are old enough for the joyful juvenilia that Wade Wilson provides.

If you have no idea what I’m babbling about, that’s OK. Although if you like babbling, Deadpool delivers. He has multiple personalities, a healing factor, and a totally reasonable obsession with Bea Arthur. (Yes, I’m serious.) Plus he’s Canadian!

Bottom line: if you want some Deadpool digital comics, you can get ’em for only 99 cents. Such a deal!

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Sale! Digital Comic Collection – Marvel Comics


Apr 16 2013

Wise Words From a Mighty Avenger

I tweeted this already, and perhaps it’s tacky to quote yourself. That said, what does tacky really mean when it comes to social media? I wanted to make sure that as many people, parents in particular, read these wise words from a mighty Avenger:

 

Yes, that’s from a comic book. Good stuff, right?

The Avenger in question is Thor, in case you didn’t catch that in the tweet. The great words, written by Roy Thomas, with art by Frank Giacoia, appeared in issue number 87 of The Avengers, published in 1971. You can read it online with a Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscription, which I highly recommend because it’s awesome.

What else is there to say except, in the words of the great Stan Lee… Excelsior!


Nov 28 2011

Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited Cyber Monday Code

For the most part I have avoided the siren songs of Black Friday, Puce Saturday, Silver Sunday and Cyber Monday shopping. (Two of those I made up. Guess which!) But a Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited Cyber Monday code showed up in my Inbox, that was a DaddyDeal I couldn’t resist. (See? If I call it a DaddyDeal, I’m still not participating in Cyber Monday. Ha! That’ll show ’em.) Read more »