So you want to be a geek... » Uncategorized

Incorruptible and Irredeemable

MichaelC — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:53:32 +0000

When you think of comic books you most likely associate them with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and Ironman to name a few. And with that you probably also think DC Comics or Marvel Comics. Even if you don't know which is which you've probably heard the words before.
Well there is a world outside of your familiar superheroes. A story I started reading a few months ago by a Comic Company called Boom Studios, written by legendary comic writer Mark Waid (Kingdom Come)
These two books started in April of 2009 with Irredeemable, a story of the world greatest hero turn most evil villain.
This is a really interesting story. I really enjoy the perspective of the characters and watching this "Superman Like" character, the Plutonian, has decided instead of helping the people of Earth, he wishes to bring them pain and destruction. But why? We get glimpses into his past and slowly watch his progression into madness. The writing is smart and quick. You don't expect to read some of things that appear on the page. In addition to that the artwork by Peter Krause is really enjoyable and gives you imagery that will shock and excite you. It is a great read and I recommend picking it up.
Now on the flip side there is there is Incorruptible. This is a story of a man who was a villain named Max Damage(the character name is a little weak), who after seeing the destruction first hand by the Plutonian, he feels the world needs a new hero to protect them.
The only problem is, because he was a villain for so long, everyone is out to get him.
Both stories are great reads. In addition to that, you get sucked in and tend to not be able to put them down. The one problem I have with Incorruptible is that they just changed the artist on the book and really don't like the direction the art has gone. People would say the previous more boxy look isn't right for it but I felt it fits the tone of the story much better and makes it feel more real and less cartoonish. I am hoping at some point the two books will merge so that we can have this constant all out battles between the two characters. The cool thing about Max Damage is his power. If he sleeps his power goes away, the longer he is awake the stronger he becomes. And that is with anything, his skin becomes bulletproof, his strength becomes immeasurable, he can jump super high. It's really a cool idea that when we rests his power goes away.
I hope you enjoy my review.
Check it out.

GEEK OUT!

World of Superman

MichaelC — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:42:01 +0000

For the part of the last year plus Superman has been all over the place in the current DCU continuity. (Please know there are tons of spoilers ahead.) It started out with the Brainiac battle that left Jonathan Kent dead and Superman uncovering a glass bottle city of Kandor, an ancient city of Krypton stolen by Brainiac to be added to his collection. Superman unlocked the bottle city near his Fortress of Solitude and released to the world, Earth, about 100,000 Kryptonians, all with the same powers as Superman. With that we get introduced to Kara Zor-El (Supergirl)'s mother and father who have become the leaders of Kandor.
The people of Earth viewed these new Kryptonians with mixed emotions. Some were excited, most were afraid. The person most against the new Kryptonians was the long thought to be dead, General Lane, Lois Lane's father.
General Lane sought to destroy the Kryptonians, all of them. He devised a plan to force the Kryptonians off of Earth by killing Zor-El, Kara's father. The Kryptonians then lifted the city of Kandor off of Earth and carried it to the opposite side of the Sun forming New Krypton. Superman decided to spend time off of Earth, away from Lois, to watch over New Krypton.This pinned Superman between Earth, his adopted home, and New Krypton, the new home of his people. Superman was forced to join General Zod's Military Guild to teach the Kryptonians how to fight and use their new found powers. This story arc, World of New Krypton went on for a year. It took a bit too long to develop but it was an enjoyable story none the less.
While that was going on, Superman has left Earth to a hero named Mon-El. Mon-El was a Daxamite with similar powers to Superman without the weakness to Kryptonite. The only problem was, Mon-El is weak to Lead and being on Earth was slowly killing him. mon-El was aided by, The Guardian, Cloned soldier who headed the Science Police in Metropolis.
With that, there were two other new heroes who arose from the leaving of Superman, Christopher Kent and Thara, also known as Nightwing and Flamebird. Christopher was the birthed son of Zod and Ursa in the Phantom Zone but adopted by Lois and Clark(see Superman Last Son). Thara was a Kryptonian from Kandor who was the living embodiment of the spirit Flamebird. She believed that Christopher was her destined love Nightwing, and they were to protect Earth from the remaining Kryptonians.
Earth found out they were Kryptonians and sought to destroy them lead by General Lane who eventually revealed himself to the world. They luckily escaped and were forced to fight a mechanized version of their God Rao with the help of the JSA and Wonder Woman.
Lex Luthor, who for the past year was imprisoned by General Lane to study Brainiac had developed his own plan of attack against the Kryptonians. He was able to free himself and Brainiac and waged an attack on New Krypton in an attempt to recapture Kandor for Brainiac's collection of bottle cities.
Lex Luthor had managed to get on the planet of New Krypton to find a prisoner held captive by Alura Zor-El, leader of New Krypton and Supergirl's mother. The prisoner was a villain named Reacton who has a Yellow Kryptonite Heart.
Lex Luthor modified Reacton so that he would basically Supernova, blowing up all of New Krypton in an attempt to kill all of them. Alura saves Supergirl at the last second by putting her in a protective chamber.
General Zod and the Kryptonian Military had already set out to destroy the people of Earth in the start of the War of the Supermen. The only people standing in his way was Superman, Supergirl, and the heroes of Earth.
Lex Luthor had one more trick up his sleeve. The Fake God Rao was converted into a missile destine for the sun. his plan was to fire the missile at the sun and cause the Sun to go from Yellow to Red and therefore negating the Kryptonians powers and killing all of them, Superman included.
Flamebird and Nightwing had evolved to a point where they no longer needed the Yellow Sun to grant them their powers so Thara (Flamebird), threw herself into the Sun to reignite it and make it Yellow again saving the Kryptonians. Unfortunately she could not save all of them and she died in the process leaving Knightwing alone.
Superman had an all out battle with General Zod to save Earth in the 100 Minute War. In that time Mon-El had set out on a quest to save the rest of the bottle cities Brainiac had taken and place them on various planets. What Mon-El did not know was that these bottle cities would tell the story of Mon-El and would eventually form the Legion of Superheroes. When he returned to Earth he was dying and was forced to return to the Phantom Zone to save his life for another time when he could be set free. Superboy was the only one to know this and he used the Phantom Zone Projector to capture as many Kryptonians as possible in the Phantom Zone to save Earth. Superman was going to sacrifice himself in order to keep General Zod in the Phantom Zone but his adopted son Christopher stopped him and vowed to go into the Phantom Zone to protect the world from Zod and the rest of the Kryptonians. He and Mon-El together now are trapped in the Phantom Zone to battle Zod and the Kryptonians. General Lane had given his other daughter a suit that gave her the same powers as the Kryptonians but she died by the mistake of Supergirl and so she became Kryptonian by some strange act of fate and the General used her to help defeat the Kryptonians and capture Lois Lane.General Lane was defeated and committed suicide in front of Lois so that he would not be forced to stand trial for his crimes.
The only problem I have with this story is very simple, There is no way to know if Superboy was able to capture all of the Kryptonians EVERYWHERE in the Phantom Zone and in the Adventure Comics New Krypton Epilogue they say no one in the 21st Century can access the Phantom Zone so it was a bit confusing. All and all it was a good story that brought everything back to some sort of continuity with the rest of the DCU. Now all they need to do is fix the mess that is Batman, who is my favorite character but, that is a story for another day.
Thanks.

Geek Out!

What kind of geek are you?

MikeK — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:27:26 +0000

I figured it would be appropriate that I keep my first article a bit broad. What kind of geek are you? Whether we like to admit it or not, we are all geeks in some aspect of our lives. Whether its a hobby or obsession, I am sure we all have a passion that we tend to devote a decent amount of time to each week. Not only did this mindset help Michael and I to start this site, but we would also like to make mention to The 56 Geeks Project. While this project tends to take the more stereotypical look at geeks, it has been great inspiration to us. Please make sure you take a look at Scott Johnson's flickr page to see the geeks in more detail. We may even be making a geek of our own for this site.

Geek Out!

-Mike