Tag Archives: review

Hawk & Dove #4

Dove vs Swan Part 2

We got more of their brawl - and it was awesome.

As always – Spoilers may appear! Read at your own risk, but I’ll try to make them tame. XD

Hawk and Dove #4!

And we’re back with more awesome with Hawk & Dove #4.

It was almost excruciating knowing I had to wait an extra week for it. Especially after having to wait until after I got home to read the issue, but I’ve got it now and it was another good one~

We start out with a good old interrogation of Condor. Dove tries to play ‘Good Cop,’ which works about as well as you think it might. So, Hawk just steps in and plays ‘Bad Cop’ for a while.

Watanabe suggests that it probably won’t work, but Dove is only half listening.

While Hawk beats on Condor, we’re treated to a brief flashback of Dove and Swan’s fight from the last issue. Dove basically beats the living daylights out of Swan and it’s awesome. We also get some references to Dawn’s past life that leave me wanting more info. Of course this leads to…

Swan calling Dove out for fighting back when her avatar is “Peace.” While she’s distracted, Swan stabs her and…something cool happens. I won’t go into too much detail because that would be a spoiler, and also because I’m not sure what happened at the time either. It was a little vague. (But thankfully they DO explain it later–so it makes up for the confusion at the time.)

Watanabe and Dove

Poor Watanabe, that's what I think every time I see him. *pats him*

Moving on, we go back to the interrogation room where Condor starts talking. He manages to confuse talk circles around the uninformed Hawk and Dove.

The issue ends with Condor letting them know that he can sense where Deadman is…who happened to be in the room at the time. Before he could leave, Deadman gets captured in a very cool way–you can read it for yourself–and we leave the issue with Dove vowing that she’d get him back no matter what!

And Hawk got blasted by some goons. Poor Hawk. No, seriously. I know the guy has attitude problems, but it seems like in every version of Hawk & Dove I see he’s always getting wailed on. He’s almost at woobie status by this point. XD

Conclusions

Another great issue. I’m really excited for the saving of Deadman in issue number five & in six we get to see Batman and Robin show up. So…awesome all around.

The artwork continues to be fun as well, and they’re using a lot more of that blur effect. It creates a much softer set of lines & colors than the harsher & distinct sketch lines. Looks pretty good.

There’s one panel in particular where Deadman is getting pulled away that’s gorgeous. Wish I could link it, but it’s pretty spoiler heavy. Sorry! XD

And we’ll end with one of my fav non-spoiler shots from the comic:

Dove, Condor and Hawk

Don't worry Hank, we don't know what he's talking about, either.

Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Movie 4)

Alright, it’s that time again – Twilight Time. Oh yeah. I wanted to see it the day it came out…but I was drawing WaM. Go figure.

I’m sure you figured out by now, that while the books are kinda’ bad, I’m a fan of the movies. I really like the movies. I will probably buy a box set when the fifth one is finally out. I admit it.

The movie is basically the same as the book, so my earlier review still applies more or less, even if I wrote it oh, a year and some ago.

I love Bella’s Dad & Jacob. I swear, I go to these movies to see those two act. Billy Burke needs to be in more films. The man’s hilarious and absolutely perfect for the role of Charlie. Or maybe I just need to see more of the movies he is in. One of the two.

Actually, all the parents and grandparents in this movie are great. The side cast of Twilight are all awesome and talented. :D

And Taylor Lautner is still the best of them, and he works well as Jacob. And since Jacob is my favorite character, book or movie, I wish him well in the future once the Twilight films are done.

As for book scenes to movie scenes, the wedding was great, the honey moon was funny, and the birth of the kid went about the same as the book…probably worse. But I excepted that as there was no possible way to make the scene in the book transfer to film and not have it be horrible. It was horrible in the book. There was no saving it.

At least the imprinting thing with Jacob wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Yay Jacob. Actually, there could have been a lot more of Jacob. All of his book scenes were really slimmed down for the film. Which is depressing since those were probably the best parts of the book.

I also look forward to the ‘Nessie’ scene in movie 2.

But all of that was pointless because by this point, I’m sure you’ve made up your mind about Twilight long ago. :D

Hawk & Dove #1 and #2

Well, when I picked up my weekly comics on Comixoloy today, I wasn’t expecting to come out with a new favorite series. In fact, I think this just blew the rest out of the water by the sheer fangirl-ness it brought out. I’ve read both issues three times today and I was sure nothing was going to kick Supergirl out of the lead spot. (You can tell because I’m writing about it today in a full post instead of the little Fangirl blurb on Friday.)

What comic would this be? Why it’s in the title and below:

Hawk & Dove Written by Sterling Gates & Art by Rob Liefeld (Colors by Matt Yackey)

Continue reading →

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Okay. Here we go. XD Spoilers abound below! I shan’t hold back so read at your own discretion. ^^

Transformers – Little peeved they killed Jazz, but otherwise liked it.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Loved it. Wrote a whole blog post on it.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I’m…split on this one. Half of it was good (and I really loved the parts that were good) and the other half was almost unforgivably bad (I say almost b/c I think I liked the good stuff enough to drive off total hatred…)

So we’re going to do a back and forth! :D

Loved Carly. Loved her so much and I’m so happy Spike’s (His name is Spike darn it! Screw ‘Sam’ XD) finally with the right girl & her actress was great. Her telling Megatron off? Joy. Total joy because Carly was always that sort of girl to walk straight up to the autobots and give them a piece of her mind.

Hated Whiney Sam. Sam was a little needy in this one. He wasn’t winning any brownie points.

Loved Lennox. Sorry, he was my favorite military guy and he got a few good scenes. XD

Hated Que/Wheeljack – for a while. But that was when I thought he was Kup (easy  mistake with the Wreckers in this movie. XD). My rage is gone now b/c his character choices suddenly make sense. XD So…moving on.

Loved Dutch & Dylan. Those two just kept getting better every second. Dutch was a mixture of funny & kick ass that worked very well and he bounced off Simmons amazingly. Dylan was great for various levels from the slightly caring hitting on your girlfriend Boss to the desperate bad guy. Lots of love.

Hated the death toll. This one isn’t so much an issue. I’ve gotten used to it in these films. But still…Starscream and Megatron? Why? Why would you do that? I was quite upset when Starscream when down. And we’ll tack on a hate for Starscream’s spitting problem. *sighs*

LOVED Leonard Nimoy. He should have revived his role as Galvatron, but I’ll take Sentinel Prime any day. Love that man behind a Transformer. His acting was amazing.

Hated that I was wincing at the Autobots. I know these are a far more violent bunch after the last two movies, but when the Decepticons are taking prisoners before the Autobots things are a tad mixed up. As for Optimus killing Megs and Sentinel at the end….eh. I can sort of see it happening with this version of his character. Didn’t mean I liked it, but eh.

Loved Laserbeak & Barricade’s cameo. Laserbeak b/c he was a glorious little smart-ass (like all cassettes should be) and Barricade just b/c he was there. <3 Barricade.

Hated wondering where the other freaking Autobots were ! I mean, what happened to Arcee and Jolt and the guys from the second movie? They couldn’t even get a cameo drive by?

Loved Bumblebee. He needed more screen time. He’s also still my favorite Transformer from this franchise and probably always will be.

So there you have it. Overall I’ll say I liked it, but there was quite a bit to be disappointed with. Enough good overweighted the bad though to make me be too upset with it. Overall it felt like the folks behind it said “Screw it, let’s have so fun.” and went with it. I can work with that. It’s Transformers.

Who Censored Roger Rabbit

Movie vs Book

Some of you are probably familiar with the masterpiece that is Who Framed Roger Rabbit, an amazing movie from 1988 that pretty much set the standard for Toon/Live Action crossovers. If you’re not familiar with this movie – go buy it now. The movie’s amazing. XD

The point is – the movie gave us the awesome detective buddy team of  Roger & Eddie Valiant, Roger’s loving sexy hot wife, Jessica and a crime that he was framed for. Not to mention Christopher Lloyd playing Judge Doom – which also happens to be my favorite role he’s ever done. (Yes, it even topped Doc on Back to the Future).

Recently, I got to read the 1981 novel by Gary K. Wolf , Who Censored Roger Rabbit, of which the movie is based. I think it’s worth pointing out that the movie is a completely different storyline and tone from the novel. While the movie is a fun Buddy Cop film with a touch of Noir – the book is definitely a much more traditional detective noir novel, complete with murder, accusations, suspects and a fabulous femme fatale~

I enjoyed the novel much more than I thought, I think because the story is so different. It’s sort of like how Tenchi Muyo has three (well, more but I forget how many XD) different anime series all with the same cast but radically different universes and story lines that are separate.

Book Summary

The novel focuses on a double homicide – Rocco Degreasy and Roger Rabbit. The cops think Roger killed Rocco and Jessica killed Roger (since she had left Roger for Rocco). And Detective Eddie Valiant gets stuck in the middle as he decides to finish out the case and find out who really is responsible for these events. He has his work cut out for him, too, when everyone friend or foe keeps to the same story of “Roger and Jessica did it.”

Oh, and everyone wants Roger’s Tea Kettle.1

Eddie’s an alcoholic, Roger’s insane, The DeGreasy brothers are actually pretty comical for the main ‘bad guys’, Sid Sleeze (the porn producer) is actually pretty delightful, and Jessica is a manipulative, out-for-number-one, witch – who still manages to seduce everyone. It’s a much darker cast, but the humor is still there with the witty Valient calling all the shots as our main protagonist and narrator (in traditional detective style) and the events fun and woven together. Plus, there was none of the ‘Dip’ stuff from the movie – the Toons could die just as easily as humans could and that includes drowning or being shot.

The ending was good as well. One of the few times where everyone who had something coming to them got what was what & where the killer was obvious the entire time, but you just wrote it off because it was too ‘obvious.’ Worked well & I quite enjoyed it.

And even though it’s a spoiler – Eddie Valiant decking Jessica Rabbit and knocking her flat out cold on the floor was quite possible the most awesome moment in the book. And considering Jessica Rabbit is one of my favorite animated characters of all time (I put her on my freaking car) – that’s saying something.

Worth the read & fun trying to picture what it must look like to have physical word balloons appearing in the real world whenever Toons talked.

Favorite Quotes

And of course, we’re going to end the post with a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“I went back to my office and let my bottom desk drawer buy me a drink.” – Eddie Valiant

“Dick Tracy came over to the car. I’d never seen him in person before, and I couldn’t believe how tall he was. Usually Toons turn actor to compensate for being shrimpy, but Tracey could look me in the eye with no trouble. And talk about square-jawed. I could have used his chin for a letter opener.” – Eddie Valiant

“You really are a louse, Valiant.” – Carol Masters

“Funerals, weddings, they’re all the same to me. The only difference is whether you walk or ride down the aisle. Either way you wind up six feed deep in misery.” – Eddie Valiant

“Don’t be too sure I’m the louse I’m supposed to be.” -Eddie Valiant

  1. If I had been on TVTropes, this is where I’d put the link to “Better Than It Sounds.”