DC Kicking into High Gear on the Small Screen

With the recent release of many blockbuster Marvel movies this year; it is almost easy to ignore the world of DC comics. Almost every person would claim with confidence that Marvel wins the popularity contest when compared to DC.

DC has come out with two movies in 2013: Red 2 and Man of Steel; while having no current releases for 2014. Shocking when compared to the, highly profitable, four Marvel based movies of 2014: Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and The Amazing Spiderman 2. DC movies have not been doing well in comparison.

However, when it comes to television shows, DC is kicking some butt. TV ratings look promising for DC’s new shows: The Flash and Gotham. Gotham ranks number one in the TV line up for September 22-28, 2014. In viewer ratings, Marvel: Agents of Shield comes in last place with three and a half stars out of five; while The Flash comes in first with four and a half stars.

On a personal rating, Gotham and The Flash are my favorite shows; I could care less about what happens on Marvel: Agents of Shield. The first episode did not hold my interest for the Agents of Shield series, while Gotham and The Flash came in with a great storyline, cast, and directors.

Gotham has the darkness that all Batman viewers love and crave. This show does not focus on the life of Bruce Wayne, but the life of Jim Gordon: a hero amongst a city of corruption. Not only does he work to clean up the streets of Gotham, but he has to contend with the corruption of the Gotham Police Department. While the story of Batman has been told and retold; this show is refreshing. The acting and character dynamics are spectacular and the cliffhangers make you crave for more. Gotham has the perfect pace, there is just enough action as well as the perfect amount of downtime detective work.

The Flash starts off the series with an origins story, which is great for of those who have not been keeping up with Green Arrow. The Flash is as if the television show of Smallville (2001) had a baby with a Spiderman movie. A witty opening with the wholesome feel to it. I do not know much about Barry Allen, The Flash, which makes this TV show great! I have always wanted to see an origins story for him on the big screen; however, I am not complaining.

While Marvel is doing well in the box office, DC is truly doing a fantastic job on the small screen. Will the vote soon sway toward DC when it comes to the best live action entertainment?

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Not too sure if I have talked about this before, but I recently got a new Android phone and decided to get some kick ass apps. One of them is The Simpsons: Tapped out. I would recommend getting it if you haven't already. It's a great way to kill time and amuse yourself.

Currently, there is a new era of the game. It's kind of a parody against all those World of WarCraft type of games and such. Normally, you spend your free time just rebuilding and designing your Springfield and you have small missions like getting Comic Book Guy to cosplay and such like that. Right now, you have the ability to attack and loot your neighbors and friends.

This strategy guide here is worth checking into. Did you know that you actually get lose loot yet spend more time when you attack your friends' Springfields versus attacking a complete strangers'? I've been doing this wrong... And now thanks to this guide, I can fix it before it's too late!

PS: Find me via my Facebook account or my Origin ID - geeksagainst.

Marvel's Super Terracotta Warriors Movie?!

Monday Mania! Super Terracotta Warriors the movie is allegedly happening. And not to mention, Marvel is apparently on board with it! Sounds really super, right?  (Source: http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/494945/Filmmakers-to-turn-Terracotta-Warriors-into-Hollywood-super-heroes )

So let's read this information from the source above and look into some of the key information directly quoted from the above source;

• Shanghai Film Group, whose president Ren Zhonglun confirmed: “A lot of projects have reached a ­practical stage.
• In the last month of 2013 and the first month of this year, there have been people from Paramount and Marvel and Pinewood Studios ­coming to talk to us.” 
• "The project is the brainchild of producer Avi Arad, whose credits include movies from the Iron Man and Spider-Man franchises."

Interesting, right? Marvel is trying to get on board? Let's look further into this with another source from earlier this year... (Source: http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2014-01/22/content_31274738.htm)

Marvel Entertainment said in a statement to China.org.cn, "'Super Terracotta Warriors' is not a Marvel Entertainment film nor is it associated with any of its producers or distributors in any way. Mr. Avi Arad, named as a producer on the project, has not had any connection with Marvel Entertainment since 2008."

So what's the deal? This is my opinion of the situation...

• Marvel is not on board with this film project. 
• The media is not correct with their reporting and is trying to put two and two together to come up with three.
• Avi Arad actually  had a lot of pull with Marvel during the 1990's. According Wikipedia, 
• "Along with Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter, Avi Arad came into conflict with Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman over control of Marvel Comics in the wake of its 1996 bankruptcy. In the end, Arad and Perlmutter came out on top, with Toy Biz taking over Marvel Comics in a complicated deal that included obtaining the rights to Spider-Man and other superheroes that Marvel had sold earlier. He was involved in Marvel's emergence from bankruptcy and the expansion of the company's profile through licensing and movies." But I still don't think Marvel's on board with Mr. Arad.

For more interesting things about Marvel and Avi Arad relationship, check this out:
http://comicsbeat.com/avi-arad-fights-back-about-his-marvel-legacy-but-lets-go-to-the-videotape/. You can see that there's been some love and hate going on. Mr. Arad does seem to be interesting though!

Usagi Yojimbo - "The Last Request"

This was a great way to start the morning off. Thank you for the great clay animation and a reminder of my youth. I am hoping that this 30th anniversary treat to Usagi gets a full length film.

Ivan Reitman's Not Doing Ghostbusters 3

As many of you might know, GeeksAgainst is based off the old Ghostbusting.net site I used to run. Ghostbusters has always been a favorite fandom of mine and this article I just saw about Ivan Reitman's reasons why he's only going to produce Ghostbusters 3 does make sense.

Earlier this year, we sadly lost Harold Ramis. Harold was part of the brain team for Ghostbusters for both the on screen and off screen work he did. He helped Dan Aykroyd a lot with the script and the concept.

Also, Bill Murray is coming off as not being interested in doing this movie. He has been this way for years but even more so without Harold.

Guardians of the Box Office

Ok, it's been now two weeks since Guardians of the Galaxy has been released into the US theaters. It pretty much was the blockbuster that this summer direly needed too. When you look at the Box Office numbers here, you can see that GotG Marvel comics C-List team fell just $4 million short of beating out Michael Bay's Transformers 4 on their debut night. However, this just as impressive, GotG also was $12 million better than the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

What I am trying to say with these movie numbers, is that Marvel did a great thing by not pushing a top tier Marvel team as the next movie. Sure, people would love to see a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie or see a team up between Punisher and Black Widow, Dark Reign, and other such great characters but what makes GotG epic, at least to me... is that we got a movie about a team that consists of a guy who calls himself the Star-Lord (imagine the ego on that one!), a talking raccoon with his best friend who is a walking tree, and two alien killing machines that both happen to be green (no relation!)... None of these characters should even work together when you look at their dynamics. Star-Lord is ego driven. Drax just wants to kill everyone associated with Thanos. Rocket and Groot are money hungry. Gamora is associated with Thanos... The story dynamics are pretty much based on this too. 

• Star-Lord gets his hands on something that Thanos wants.
• Gamora is dispatched to get her hands on it for Thanos.
• A bounty is placed on Star-Lord.
• Rocket and Groot want that high paying gig.
• Drax wants to kill Gamora.

While much of the movie isn't truly based on the comics, it's still great to see the likes of these unknown Marvel heroes show up on the big screen; especially when they are able to hold their own against such big names like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers. The fact that Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Drax, Gamora, and Star-Lord are about to become common household names is pretty epic. 

I remember playing on the Hasbro Toy Shop a couple years ago to order my Marvel Universe GotG set. The acting talent was great. The music was epic. And it was just a fun movie overall. I'm not going to really review the movie though because it's just that good. I don't want to spoil it for those of you who NEED to see it.  Overall rating? A+ and I have seen it twice! 

The Transformers Collectors’ Club brings the Humans!

This is kinda exciting news for me; Hasbro's Transformers Collectors Club is making the EDC for the first time.  I've included the release info from the source so go into further detail because this was just kinda announced. We'll have updates later, I hope!

"Fort Worth, TX – August 14th, 2014 – Fun Publications, Inc., licensee for Hasbro’s official Transformers Collectors’ Club, is excited to announce their first ever 3 ¾ inch human figure from the Transformers mythos… Marissa Faireborn!

Fans of the Transformers franchise will recognize Marissa as the Earth Defense

 Command (EDC) pilot from season 3 of the original Transformers cartoon. What G.I. Joe fans will recognize is the name, “Faireborn”. As Season 3 of the Transformers series took place a couple decades AFTER G.I. Joe, this crossover character was in fact, as intended by Story Editor Flint Dille who worked on both Transformers and G.I Joe, the daughter of G.I. Joe members Flint and Lady Jaye!

In addition to this great action figure offering, Marissa will also be riding in to action with her Autobot ally, Afterburner! Both will be revealed tomorrow on the Transformers Collectors’ Club Facebook page. However, in the meantime we are thrilled to present the art for Marissa Faireborn w/ Afterburner by Robert Q. Atkins and Jesse Wittenrich.

This figure, along with the motorcycle accessory, will be available for order through the Transformers Collectors’ Club early Spring 2015. For more information on the exclusive figure offerings of the TCC, including Lio Convoy, Nova Prime and the TFSS 3.0, please visit Transformersclub.com."

Sonic Boom!

Looks like Sonic is getting a whole new look with a reboot. Sega announced today that Sonic gets a new look... a new game, toy line, and TV series! Not too sure how I feel about the new attire but I think it looks promising. Sonic Boom should be coming soon!  Read the Nintendo article here: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/56952/sega-announces-sonic-boom-for-wii-u-and-3ds/.

The Marvelous Month of March!

Next month, GeeksAgainst  is running 31 Days of "Marvelous March." Each day, there will be a daily article, write up, fan interview, contest or something else! But what I need is... your help. I need some guest writers, some ghost writers, some Ghost Riders, some ideas, some victim--er fans to be interviewed, and some people to share photos of their collection. For anyone interested in partaking, please message me or email me at scott.thomas.barnes@gmail.com. For anyone who hasn't already done so, please like our facebook and follow us at www.GeeksAgainst.com. Thanks so much! 

Yo, Joe! Who is your favorite?

Keeping up with the G.I. Joe birthday celebration, who is your favorite character? Mine's Sci-Fi the laser trooper that barely has any screen time in the series.

Tune in tonight to find out how we are giving away a prize! 

Happy Birthday, G.I. Joe!

Hasbro's G.I. Joe turns 50 today. After thousands of figures and characters strong, the toyline has yet to show age! To see most of the figures, check out this extensive Joe database at http://www.yojoe.com/. In the mid 80's, Marvel Comics helped revamp and rebrand G.I. Joe by using an idea for a S.H.I.E.L.D. comic book series and turning it into a G.I. Joe series. That's when we got to see a lot of our favorite characters.

For more information, check this article!
http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/GI-Joe-the-world-s-first-action-figure-turns-50-5209506.php

Farewell to Pysch

Since the very first episode, I have enjoyed watching this with every episode as it came on. In fact, I planned my nights to avoid missing the episodes if possible. I know all good things must come to an end but this is too soon. I just wanted to say to Corbin Bernsen, James Roday, Dulé Hill, Maggie Lawson, Timothy Omundson, Sage Brocklebank, Kurt Fuller, and Kirsten NelsonThank you for all the laughs, good times, and memories. I will watch the reruns as well. 

Psych is a great series on the USA Network. It offered 8 seasons of about a fake psychic detective agency that would know no bounds to bringing justice to murderers, kidnapping, hostage situations, and Comic Cons. There will be a huge void in the TV scheduling where your show was.

Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

UPDATE: Due to the request by Paramount Pictures Corporation, I am respectfully removing and replacing  unreleased “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” motion picture(s) with generic, fan made TMNT images to represent and hold the place where those images were. 

Be prepared to be shell shocked! Wait, that's a bad pun but it's not as bad as the new designs that are being leaked for Michael Bay's rendering of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ok, so sure, the TMNT have almost 30 years of history to be worked with. But how much of it is actually important enough to be made into the movies? 

Primary TMNT from Mirage's launch goes as this: 

Volume 1: 1984–1993

Volume 2: 1993–1995

Volume 3: 1996–1999

Volume 4: 2001–2010

So that's... 26 years of Mirage's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? But Volume 3 has no importance. Peter Laird decided that Volume 3 is not "canon" or "official."That brings us to to 1984-1995 (11 years) and 2001-2010 (9 years). Most of those story lines and arcs were small and isolated. Shredder himself wasn't even a big deal. Hell, he was even killed within the first night he fought the TMNT. He actually wasn't even to hold much ground against them and committed Seppuku rather than die by their hands. The Foot Clan would use clones, Karai, and other means to haunt the Ninja Turtles with the shadow of the Shredder, but he remained dead. Don't believe me? Check it here. 

"In truth, though many TMNT fans who became fans via the first animated series see the Shredder as a REALLY important part of an ongoing, long-running battle with the Turtles, I don't think Kevin or I ever did. Yes, he was an important part of their history, and they probably would not have come into existence without his involvement in their world (or more accurately Splinter's world)... but that's about it. Other than bringing the Shredder back for "Return to New York" (and the few issues preceding that set that arc up), I never missed him in any of the other TMNT books I worked on."  - Peter Laird

The Fred Wolf Films and Playmates toyline made Shredder into a cartoony version of himself and that's where he managed to become an ongoing threat. The Archie Comics run was based on the cartoon but even in that, he wasn't the biggest threat they dealt with. 4Kids did a relaunch with an alien posing as the Shredder where was an ongoing threat and Dreamwave made a small series of comic books adapted from those stories. Nicktoons currently is doing a pretty great CGI series that pulls elements from both the Mirage, Fred Wolf Films, and the old live action movies. But Michael Bay's take on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Let's begin... 

The original image that was here was Michael Bay's Transformers Megatron plus Power Rangers' Lord Zedd equaling this new movie Shredder because that is what the image looked like to me.

Shredder looks like Michael Bay's Transformers Megatron and Lord Zedd from Power Rangers had a child together. It's cool that Michael Bay's TMNT is pulling from fan favorites over source material to create a whole new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but the design just seems like he is trying too hard. The next image is even scarier...

The image that was here was the original Jim Henson's studios Leonardo plus Turok the Dinosaur Hunter equaling the new movie's Leonardo because he wears a strikingly close set of armor. These knock off Ninja Turtles are almost a fair and accurate representation of what the new TMNT look like though!

I'm hoping that this is a final assault... "City at War" design. To me, the TMNT never really war armor unless it was for a final showdown, last resort, all chips are in... kind of battle. With that menacing looking Shredder? It can work. But if that's the look for the whole movie? It's going to be taking away from the elements that I like about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; that there plastron is their armor. Besides that, what is bothering me? The nostrils? The over muscular designs? The scales? The too human looking face? Yes, all of the above. I'm afraid to see what Splinter is going to look like. 

This article is pretty much a knee-jerk reaction to the images I am seeing and the information I keep hearing about how and where Michael Bay and his team plan on altering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I grew up with. I know it was not a perfect movie, but TMNT from 2007 was great. It was for kids, had limited back story about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so anyone can enjoy it, and it kept the Green Team true to their forms. What I see right now? This is making the Bayformers series look great. While the robot form designs may have lacked, at least the concept of alien robots that turned into vehicles kept, the important characters (Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, etc) stayed almost true to their source material.

</end rant>

GeeksAgainst!: Justice League - War

I had the privilege of being able to view this before it gets out for the public next week. Mainly as a Marvel fan, I don't pretend that I am an authority of DC; especially when it comes to the Justice League. I know a lot about Batman but that's from what I was exposed to thanks to Batman: The Animated series and Batman Beyond. Heck, I enjoyed the altered Batman history for the Bale/Nolan run.

Summary: I'll start off without any spoilers because I feel that is pretty fair... especially since this set to be officially released on February 4, 2014. (For those who want to pre-order a copy...) The story takes place before the formation of the Justice League. Green Lantern runs into Batman and the two end up dealing with a Parademon; the Darkseid's monstrous shock/invasion troops from Apokolips. After deciding that the Parademon is of alien nature, they decide to finally meet Superman to see what he knows. Meanwhile, the Flash is has already aware of the alien activity and has been in touch with a lab. During this time, Wonder Woman confronts a mob of anti-superhero protestors. The rest? It's packed with pretty great action. I am not going to spoil or reveal the rest of the plot.

The Pros: With this being a first of possibly more animated Justice League movies, I really like how it wasn't filled with too much backstories that hardcore comic fans already know and also not too many references for new fans to be overwhelmed. The designs of the characters were great. The personalities and mannerisms were pretty much spot on. With a line up of Darkseid and his forces against Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, Shazam, and Cyborg, there's plenty to enjoy. Dialogue was great as well.

The Cons: Flash needed more screen time as well as some more with Shazam. Cyborg could have used some more time adjusting. Other than that, I really enjoyed the direction of this movie.

Overall: 10/10 Stars

Conclusion: As a PG-13 movie, the animated violence and language definitely takes it to the more mature audience. It was nice to not see an animated "kiddie" movie from DC. Marvel has cancelled Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and replaced it with Avengers: Assemble and Hulk: Agents of SMASH, it's nice to actually see and feel like comic book movies are for my age range again.  I would definitely recommend watching it; especially if you have been anti-DC before in the past.