Friday, June 24, 2011

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy, a shared moment. And how Blade Runner & Farscape shows us why Harley's new look is cool

Well I know this posting is gonna offend some of you out there who have more delicate sensibilities. I don't know what to tell ya other then when I stumbled across this illustration I felt anything but offended. I'm a guy, this is my blog, Ivy was part of the Squad in the first series and Harley is gonna be part of the Squad in the new series, nuff said. Well who ever out there did this illustration thank you and please let us know who you are if you come across this posting.
As you all know it appears as if Harley is ditching her classic skin tight "jester" like costume in favor of something more punk rock looking. From what I'm seeing out there it seems there are some people taking issue with this for what ever reason. Little did I know since I'm not a gamer this look was already being used for the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. And for some reason it didn't hit me until I saw the video game looking Harley that she totally reminded me of Daryl Hannah as Priss from Blade Runner which is the best all time dystopia sci-fi film of all time with Children of Men being a close second. That alone should prompt someone to being very receptive to the costume switch. Aside from the white face paint and messy mascara eyes Hannah had that whole playful, sexy psycho thing going on. Now that's got me wondering if the Typhoid Mary character from Marvel was also inspired by Daryl Hannah from Blade Runner. And what about Chiana (Gigi Edgely) from Farscape? Ya see folks that look just works for hot psycho femme fatales you don't wanna mess with.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Superman & Batman: Apocalypse - another DC movie that doesn't suck! Plus I found a new actress to be Lashina

Ok I just by chance found a series of video clips from a DC movie I didn't know about. IT LOOKS AWESOME! Maybe even better then Superman Batman: Public Enemies. Aside from a ton of great shit in it like Darkseid we also get to see among other great fights a showdown Wonder Woman and Barda have against the Female Furies. This fight is beyond awesome it's got everything over and under weight guys who don't get laid dream of. Including a new look for the Furies that has them looking more feminine and with new costumes that show more skin. Something occurred to me as I was checking out Lashina I thought of another actress that would be a good fit for her, Rona Mitra. She's been in a few high budget B action movies but you may remember her best from Under World: Rise of the Lycans in which she plays an armor clad vampire warrior. She's really hot and athletic of course but she also has this slightly angular face that makes her look kinda hard which is what Lashina should look like. I'm sure all of you know by now how Apocalypse and Lashina (Duchess) especially played a big part in the original Suicide Squad series. Lashina as Duchess was a fan favorite and although we knew it had to happen eventually were really sorry to see her go. Anyways, enough of my gibberish check out this clip. I promise you if you haven't seen it yet IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! One last thing you may need to let it buffer first before you can watch it smoothly.


Look what I just found today Wed. June 22. I have no freaking idea who did this but bless their soul this is hot! This almost makes me wanna start a blog for Lashina alone. As if that girl fight clip wasn't enough now this comes along. I gotta tell yeah folks although I'm looking forward to seeing the new Suicide Squad series I would be so much more excited if they were some how bringing back Lashina for the Squad. It would take truly some genius writing for it to make any sense but damn that would be cool. Please be sure to left click on the image to blow it up. I want it to just jump out at you.
Sometimes I'm not sure which way I like her more. Is she better in the Rambo like get up totting a big ass gun or is she better off in her traditional skin tight dominatrix kinda look? It's like asking if it's better to be respected or feared. is it too much to ask for both?

Friday, June 17, 2011

Green Lantern movie review: My thoughts on The Wall, Ryan Reynolds & how Israel's 1st prime minister became the Guardians of the Universe

I just got back in from having seen GL and there's just two things I want to say off hand. One, what I was thinking about writing about the Amanda Waller character before I saw the movie is exactly what I will write since having seen it. Two, although Nathan Fillion still would have been my first pick for Hal Jordan I have to say Reynolds did a fine job. Over all the movie was pretty good especially with the way they introduced the secondary GL characters like Kilawog, Tomar Rae and of course Sinestro. They set them all up really well for the sequel that we all know is coming. My biggest gripe off hand is that visually the Parallax menace could have been thought out a bit better though. I'm sure more issues I'll have with the movie will come up that I'll mention in the comments as I have more time to "digest" the movie.
Now, on to The Wall. The Amanda Waller character was not really a very prominent character in the film maybe only having about 15 minutes of screen time. Which for the most part I expected. beyond her being a black woman who had a high ranking position with the U.S. govt. that deals with shit that is generally kept. away from the public eye we really didn't get to see the Amanda Waller most of us have been reading about for more then 20 years now. There was one scene that was an exception however in which we are treated to a flash back sequence of Waller's life that includes most of the stuff in that Suicide Squad secret origins issue #14 that pertained to Waller herself. So basically she was just another secondary character that is probably also getting set up for a more prominent role in the sequel. Which is fine really since this isn't a Suicide Squad movie. I think the fact that their using the Amanda Waller character to any degree is a testament to the enormous popularity she has gained with fans in of the DC Universe over the last 20 years and that in and of it's self is pretty damn cool I think!
As for Angela Basset as Amanda Waller I'm so over that whole controversy already. It's been talked to death and when you go see the movie just come to terms with the fact that when it comes to seeing Amanda Waller on the big screen she's not going to be played by a short heavy set black actress. That being said Basset was fine in the movie too even though she didn't really get to flex her acting muscle too much as of yet.
On an interesting side note some of you out there may not be a aware that the look of the Guardians of the Universe is based on Israel's 1st prime minister David Ben-Gurion. Like the Guardians he was a small man in stature (only about 5'4") but a giant in heart and spirit. He was a leader in the early Jewish militias in the British mandate of Palestine which was made up mostly of Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees from Russia and other parts of the Middle East. In May of 1948, literally hours after Ben-Gurion declaring state hood the then fledgling Jewish state (smaller then New Jersey) was attacked by the combined armies of syria, iraq, egypt, jordan and lebannon. In response Israel did what it does best when it's survival is threatened, it won! There is a theme about how one must conquer their fears when facing horrific odds and great evils in the Green Lantern mythology. Knowing this it's hardly surprising that David Ben-Gurion would have served as an inspirational figure for the founders of the Green Lantern Corp which is made up of only the bravest and noble beings of the universe. Minus the occasional exception like Sinestro of course.

Angela Basset on Amanda Waller:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3TCMBomcsY

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Eye of the Tiger: fan art by Stuart Sayger and more!


You see this full body drawing of Bronze Tiger with the white background to the left? It's out of an early DC Who's Who issue that came out around the mid 80s. I had that issue and it was my first look at Bronze Tiger. I didn't know anything about him including that he's wearing a tiger mask. At the time I thought he was some sort of human/tiger hybrid or something.
Which is ironic cause during the Dragon's Horde saga in the original Suicide Squad series he would encounter a meta-human martial arts Yakuza strong man called Cats Eye who apparently was some sort of human/tiger hybrid. Cats Eye got the best of BT thanks to some poison tipped claws but on their next encounter BT was ready for him and gave that pussy (no pun intended) a serious beat down in hand to hand combat.

That's what I love about BT how he can take on these super powered opponents and kick their asses or at least hold his own with em rather it's Cats Eye or the Soviet super soldier known as Stolnivok (The Steel Wolf) who BT has also faced more then once. Speaking of which I found this clip art of BT going head to head with Deathstroke that I thought was pretty cool. I don't know what title it came from but if you do don't take that secret to your grave. There are so may awesome hypothetical cross over fights I could imagine for BT. How do your think he fair against the likes of Iron Fist, Shang Chi, Black Panther, Snake Eyes, Daredevil or even Captain America?

To see the rest of this awesome showdown go to: http://dwaynemcduffie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1454&start=80#p94094 I don't think I've had nearly enough Bronze Tiger in this blog site thus far so I'm really glad I've finally gotten around to doing this posting. And that's also why I'm glad I can feature this amazing rendering of Bronze Tiger that I just found by pure luck on the internet by Stuart Sayger. I'm not sure but this could be an ink brush painting or just simply a painting done using black paint. Either way it's awesome, and I love this slightly old style Japanese painting look it has to it. It also works great in black and white. Nicely done Stuart if your reading this!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

J'onn J'onnz, the Black King?



The Martian Manhunter played a role during the Fall of the Wall saga in the Checkmate series in which we saw the conspiracy unfold that forced Amanda Waller to resign her position as the White Queen of Checkmate. Now I'm not going to get into details about that too much but in a nut shell it involved MM impersonating the Black King for a while and later MM probing Deadshot's mind and extracting some information that allowed the other royals ( Black King, Black Queen and White King) to black mail Waller.
The Fall of the Wall saga was my first look at the "cone head" version of MM. That was kinda at a time where my interest in comics was on the low end so I had no idea what the Hell that look was all about. I didn't like it, and if some body (Frank) out there wants to tell me what that look was all about (Frank) I'd love for them to leave a comment (Frank) to that end. Fairly recently I discovered that great show Young Justice and I thought it was interesting how MM was sporting that new costume on the show but not the cone head thank God. I think this version of MM's costume is pretty cool. Maybe I even think I like it a bit more then the original. So what say you people? Cone head or no cone head?