Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

This book from Christie Golden was fun and easy to read. If you have never heard of World of Warcraft and the RTS games that spawned it then you might be a little lost as to what is going on. This book has been released to help promote the newest expansion Wrath of the Lich King and gives a bit of an explanation as to why players were not fighting him before now.

The story takes place as three characters recall various points in the life of Arthas Menethil, who becomes the Lich King during the events fo the Warcraft 3 game.

The opening scene of the book actually requires understanding of the nature of the Lich King to fully comprehend. The Lich King is the spirit of an Orc Shaman named Ner'Zhul who was imprisoned by the Demons who wanted to control Azeroth and sent to Northrend to do so. In the opening scene the spirit of Ner'Zhul is sitting at a table with the humanity of the man who was once Arthas Menethil, which is portrayed by the youth he was long before all this happened. The humanity is sick and frail looking like it is clinging on with it's last threads.

The story then takes you to Arthas as a youth and proceeds to tell the story of his growing up stopping to show the events that turn him into the man who becomes the Lich King. It shows and intriguing look into the past of the character and leads to another short break. The second section of the book opens with the character Jaina Proudmoore (another main character from Warcraft 3) as she drifts into remembering what Arthas was like. The story then shows the love affair between the two characters and takes you through the events of Warcraft 3 from the perspective of a person who is not resurrected or able to build almost infinite troops. 

After another short interlude the story introduces Sylvanas Windrunner (a character Arthas killed and tortured in Warcraft 3 after becoming a Death Knight) and shows a bit of her plans, and then jumps back to cover the events of The Frozen Throne expansion to Warcraft 3.

I enjoyed the book and found it to be a good read. I do think some of it might be hard to follow if you know little to nothing of the Warcraft world and mythology. Although I think it could still stand as a story about the lengths one might go to if they are not careful.

Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk

I hate superhero comics nowadays.

I can’t keep up with them, they’re all too heavy and bloated with continuity issues, crossovers, I abhor the overall art styles coming from both Marvel (too realistic and dark) and DC (too bright and colorful), and it’s all losing its appeal. It just exhausts me and frustrates me, looking at the shelves full of superhero comics in stores when trying to find something genuinely interesting.

However, I love Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk, despite having no idea what the hell’s really going on in the Ultimate Universe or where this fits.

Let’s flashback a bit: Early 2006, I’m a senior in high school, some friends have just gotten me back into comics, and I’m picking up just about anything I can find (which leads to some ultimately painful, regrettable purchases) in comic book stores, nearly spending entire paychecks. This was when the first two issues of Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk were released together in one fancy “Director’s Cut” book, with sketches and the complete scripts for the first two issues. I got it out of curiosity, and was floored. I couldn’t wait for the next issue to come out…

…And, well, I kind of had to. Issue 3 was delayed so horribly that it didn’t come out until March 2009. Yeah. THIS YEAR. I had to wait THREE BLOODY YEARS for the series to pick back up again, and it just recently finished up, with the sixth and final issue coming out just last week, and I couldn’t be happier.

I mean, c’mon. Three pages into the first issue, you get a glorious two-page spread of Hulk ripping Wolverine in half. You heard right, HULK RIPS WOLVERINE IN HALF.



Yeah!

You’d think being ripped in half in the first issue wouldn’t make the rest of the story very interesting, and while these first two issues are largely flashbacks, it doesn’t stop crazy things like this from happening.

Oh right, plot. Did you read volume one of the Ultimates or watch the Ultimate Avengers movie? The basic gist is this: Hulk went mad, killed 600-some odd people in New York, and it was up to the newly-formed Avengers, known as the Ultimates, to stop him. Afterwards, S.H.I.E.L.D. publicly executed Bruce Banner by leaving him on an empty aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean and dropping a nuke on it.

Except, you know, it didn’t kill him.

Flash forward a bit, and strange, violent occurrences are happening across Europe and Asia, events that, linked together, prove that Hulk is still alive. So Nick Fury hires Wolverine to go find Hulk in the Himalayas and kill him.

It just gets better from there.

There’s one primary reason that I love this story: Every single issue, without fail, has something positively INSANE happening, and hilarious (though admittedly somewhat juvenile) dialogue that always has me laughing out loud.

“Right before I got twisted around so I could see my own ass…I was lookin’ down at you and thinkin’, ‘what would be a really neat way to *&(@*&ing kill that mother*&$^*?”

The writer is Damon Lindelof, apparently the head writer of Lost, which I’ve never watched, so I can’t make any comparisons, but I can say the guy does a bang-up job of writing a good comic book story that’s actually FUN and ENTERTAINING. He also makes many sly references to previous Hulk Vs Wolverine encounters in the original Marvel universe, throws in a reference to Star Trek, and even takes a jab at that whole Civil War fiasco in a conversation between Captain American and Iron Man as they play ping pong out of costume. As far as the artist goes, Leinil Francis Yu, he can be a hit or miss artist, especially if someone else is inking his work and if the colorist is half-assed, but thankfully no one inked his art in this and the coloring isn’t too bright, but isn’t some monochrome, dark crap, either.

Plus, I can’t imagine many other artists being able to render a nice big shot of Wolverine, naked, trying to fight a panda and having flowers come out of his hands as opposed to his usual um, claws.

So, it is awesome, what more can I say? Even if you hate superhero comics, if you’re just a fan of wacky, violent hijinks and such, it is definitely worth checking out. The trade will undoubtedly be out in a few months’ time so you’re going to have to wait, but trust me: I waited three years for this, and it’s totally worth it.

[Brett]

Abbreviewations: Summer Movies May

Hello, I know I have not posted much, but I have been rather busy and my laptop died a month or so ago. I have been on a desktop since then but never got around to logging in. I figured I would post my thoughts on the summer movies that I saw last month during May.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I really enjoyed this movie, the action was fun and for me who has never read the comics much it was interesting to see the past of one of the characters from the x-men movies. I know this may not follow the comics very well (or it may) but as I said I have not read them. My biggest complaint is that Ryan Reynolds only is in the first ten or so minutes of the movie and then when he supposedly reappears they have sewn his mouth shut. Other than that I enjoyed it. The ending I got to see after the credits was a big disappointment, and I wish they could have given something more worth sitting through the credits at all theaters instead of just some. I understand them trying to combat the "leak" but while the movie was good I do not feel it was worth seeing multiple times for a 15 second clip and only seems to me to be a move of greed to try and get those who actually care enough to spend another 9 dollars

Star Trek

I remember growing up watching episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation with my dad, and when I caught episodes of DS9 or Voyager I enjoyed them. In fact I own the DVDs of The Next Generation. Despite all this I have never liked  the original series. After hearing about the train wreck (although I have not seen and cannot confirm) of Nemesis, I hear about a new Star Trek Movie in the works. Then I hear about the fact that it will follow the original crew before they became the crew. I will admit that for a bit there I was iffy about the new movie. I started seeing the trailers and as Alex put it even not being a fan of the original crew I wanted to see it. Well I sit here after having seen it three times now and I say it was an excellent movie and worth seeing. I will admit when I was hanging out with friends going to see it I debated (since it would be my third viewing) fearing I would be bored during parts. I wasn't I was as enthralled (not accurate but closest I can think of right now) as much as I was the first two times. While I was originally worried about Sylar playing Spock, Zachary Quinto was so perfect that I can't think of a better actor for the part now. Many reviewers complain about the part of the story with Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock Prime (as he is listed in the credits), but I find this a crucial part of the movie and it is just great to see Leonard Nimoy. Without Spock Prime the story of the movie does not fit with the already set up Star Trek Universe and would not be able to truly take the name. 

Angels & Demons

What many people do not fully realize, is that Angels & Demons came out and is set before The DaVinci Code, the thing is that the DaVinci Code got so much more press that they decided to make a movie of it first. The movie clearly did well enough that they decided to go ahead and make the other book in the series into a movie. Thankfully they did not try to reset the world and pretend the first movie had not happened, leading to one of the many changes from the book that are there. But the changes work for turning it into a movie and making it decent. Although (as is almost always the case) the book is better I enjoyed the movie, the downplay of CERN and the assassin are both acceptable although I felt the assassin seemed barely developed, but I can't see how they could have done better in a movie situation. I feel the change with the murdered CERN scientist/priest (although his being a priest is barely mentioned if at all, the biggest sign I noticed was he had on the collar at the beginning) to just Vittoria's partner, instead of her adoptive father is a bit questionable, it does not hinder the movie enough. Overall I felt it was worth watching although it might be better for a rent instead of the theater for most. I have to say my biggest question about the whole thing is why the magazines are claiming it to be a church movie, when it really has nothing to do with the church except that many of the main characters are heavily involved with it and it takes place there.

Terminator: Salvation

Fun explosive movie, lots of booms and gunfire, the biggest things that (only slightly) hinder the movie for me actually have little to do with the movie. The "big twist" of the movie is revealed in the trailers, otherwise the opening scenes would not work as the opener, essentially revealing that the character there is not fully human anymore. The movie to me shows why the whole series exists in that the machines do not understand the humans very well, which is why they keep losing the fight and need to try to change things. For those who were looking for the end of the series will be disappointed. The biggest questions I have are where does this fit in line with the other entries in the Terminator world, which ones are still valid which are not and where does this truly fall. I know it falls after Judgement day, but before the catalyst for Terminator, but does T3: Rise of the Machines count, or did judgement day happen some other way. I do know they have a chance to make at least one more, although that does not necessarily mean the series would have to end, the machines send a Terminatorback to try to tip the scales in their favor, but what happened to the resistance after they sent Kyle.

Well that is what I have seen this past month the last week (29th) did not have anything I really wanted to see, although I might see Up at some point, and Drag Me to Hell is only minimally tempting because Alison Lohman looks really beautiful to me in it, but I have never relly liked Horror