Archive for the 'Comics' Category

The Top 9 People Michael Jackson Was Trying to Look Like

Let’s just be honest about this: regardless of his incredible abilities as a performer, Michael Jackson had a mortifying plastic surgery addiction that was impossible to ignore.

I may not know much about plastic surgery, but I can’t imagine it’s something you go into casually without an endgame in mind. Mikey must of had some sort image of what he wanted to look like after all that surgery was done.

Unfortunately, we may never know exactly what MJ’s goal was with all those disturbing facial modifications, but here are my best nine guesses.

9. Superman. Okay, so MJ missed the mark if he was going for a Clark Kent vibe. But you have to admit that the chin implant is very superhero-esque. And when I think of superheroes with a strong chin line, first and foremost I think of Supes. Still, like I said, Michael Jackson wasn’t THAT reminiscent of the Man of Steel. If he was going for a DC Comics hero, he was probably aiming more towards…

8. Wonder Woman. This super Amazon is far more in line with MJ’s final appearance than the guardian of Metropolis. Jacko was obviously going for a feminine look, so maybe he took some cues from Diana of Themyscira (though, upon further scrutiny, MJ looked more like an old school Jack Kirby drawing than any DC superheroine). At the end of the day, whether aiming for Wonder Woman or not, Michael Jackson ended up looking like a…

7. Nightmare. Literally. We all know that Michael Jackson preferred Marvel Comics. And who better to take inspiration from than one of the greats: Steve Ditko. When my friend said MJ looked like a nightmare, I automatically added a capital N on the front. BTW, do me a favor and remember this entry for later on in the list, okay? Anyway, back to the current section of the countdown. MJ, after all was said and done, was far too put together to be going for a Nightmare look. In fact, I would say his desires were more along the lines of…

6. Betty Page. Seriously. With those lips and that silky black hair, MJ was totally going for a high-contrast pinup lady look. Ms. Page was, of course, the most notorious of the black and white pinups. Who better to emulate, right? Well, if Mikey was trying to look like Betty Page, unfortunately he ended up more like…

5. Elizabeth Taylor. Anyone else out there ever find it ironic that Michael Jackson was not only close friends with Elizabeth Taylor but also slowly turning into her? For what it’s worth, I thought about this even as a kid. And while this classic Hollywood starlet certainly inspired millions, I think it’s safe to say that Micheal’s eventual appearance seemed to be inspired a bit more by…

4. Cher. And I’m not talking 1970s Cher. I’m talking modern Cher, like Cher from the Believe video. Even if MJ was trying to look like Cher, he was aiming for the next octave up with his voice. Take that, Cher! When it came to looking like women, you two were tied. But when it came to sounding like women, well, Mikey had you beat there. But don’t fret Cher – at the end of the day, Mike wasn’t your doppelganger. He always reminded me more of…

3. Elvira. You know, the original sexy goth chick. We’ll never know if MJ really wanted to look like Elvira, but visual evidence certainly points in this direction. Hell, maybe he was just jealous and wanted to get the Tom Jones treatment too. But while Elvira always rocked a feathered fashion mullet, Michael appeared to prefer flowing black locks a bit closer to those of…

2. Snow White. The pale skin. The jet black hair. The big red lips. That whole song about talking to a mirror. His love for poisoned apples. Okay, that last one I made up. But the first three all are bonafide facts! Snow White is a pretty huge icon, just like Mike. Maybe he was trying to take the whole iconic thing to the next level. If that’s what his aim was, he was a bit off. Instead of capturing the pale countenance of Snow White, Michael Jackson ended up with the same complexion as…

1. Morbius, the Living Vampire. Not only did MJ have the complexion, he also had the miniature nose and the same exaggerated facial shape as Marvel’s resident anti-hero vampire. Remember when I told you to remember #7? Here’s the payoff: when I told my friend about the Nightmare reference, he agreed but felt that MJ resembled Morbius to a greater degree. And he’s right. The whole Michael Jackson look was very “Living Vampire.” And here’s some visual evidence:

Michael Jackson, the Living Morbius

More: The Top 9 Least Intimidating Supervillains

Why the Top 9? Because 10 is too many and 9 is better. 3 X 3 = Awesome. Now that’s what I call math.

A Podcast with Ross and Nick 004 – X-Men Comics Discussed!!!

Following up on their X-Men movie debate, Ross Campbell and Nick Marino move into comics and talk about their favorite X-Men comic books. As an adult Ross loves the Grant Morrison run, and as a kid, Ross loved X-Force. And he loves Generation X, too. Nick loved X-Factor by Peter David and Howard Mackie as a kid, and the Chris Claremont and Paul Smith From the Ashes X-Men as an adult. Meanwhile, real-life supervillain Nik Neptune MySpaces his real-life superhero arch-nemesis. Then, as the episode closes, the King of the Evil Seas struggles to set his MySpace username.

Shove the AudioShocker podcast RSS feed into your favorite RSS reader. Review the AudioShocker on iTunes. Call the AudioShocker Comment Line at 412-567-7606 or have our comment line call you.

 
 A Podcast with Ross and Nick #4 [34:10m]: Play Now | Download

Podcast Episode 086 – The Last Transformation into an Outlaw Legacy

Neal thinks that Nick would think that Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is racist. The Last Airbender trailer exceeds expectations but still disappoints these two Avatar fans who cannot get over the bizarre casting choices. Michael Jackson and Billy Mays have left the building. Play it to the Bone and Gran Torino are solid movies. Neal tells Nick about New Era hats with Marvel Comics stuff on them. Nick tells Neal about G-Man, Avengers: The Initiative, X-Men Legacy, Demon in a Bottle, and a short western comic by Skipper Martin from the new Outlaw Territory anthology. Also: is Alan Moore the literary Dov Charney? And what is podcast vérité?

Shove the AudioShocker podcast RSS feed into your favorite RSS reader. Review the AudioShocker on iTunes. Call the AudioShocker Comment Line at 412-567-7606 or have our comment line call you.

 
 AudioShocker Podcast #86 [47:24m]: Play Now | Download

Captain America Reborn Hyper Combo Wallpaper!

Captain America Reborn #1 variant

Captain America gets reborn by Joe Quesada

DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER :: 1280 X 1024 :: 1440 X 900 :: 1600 X 1200

The Marvel vs. Capcom series has a great wealth of fighters. But from the beginning, I’ve only had one favorite: Steve Rogers, Captain America. I’ve been playing as Cap at the arcade and at home for as long as I can remember. He never lets me down.

Cap is coming back. In fact, Reborn #1 hits shelves this Wednesday and that’s why we’re gracing you with this awesome Joe Quesada, Danny Miki, and Richard Isanove variant cover. From what I understand, this cover won’t be available for a few more weeks. But here’s a little taste to get you pumped for the Reborn reprint, I suppose!

Thanks to Comic Book Resources and their new Cup O’ Joe feature for the image. Be back here next Monday for a brand new Iron Man Hyper Combo Wallpaper!

A Podcast with Ross and Nick 003 – X-Men Movies Debated!!!

Ross Campbell loves X-Men: The Last Stand (the third one). Nick Marino loves X-Men (the first one). It’s X-Men 1 vs. X-Men 3 in a movie debate battle royale (where the only REAL loser is X2: X-Men United). Will Nick be swayed by Ross’ love for the top-grossing yet critically-panned third installment? Or will Ross be persuaded by Nick’s passion for the groundbreaking yet visually-underwhelming first chapter? So much suspense! So many questions!! So many exclamation points!!! Also: Ross hates CG Patrick Stewart in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Nik Neptune puts a face to the name.

 
 A Podcast with Ross and Nick #3 [31:25m]: Play Now | Download

Podcast Episode 085 – The Death of Transporting Ballistic Fanboys

Nick is not feeling Fanboys, Neal is not feeling Transporter 3, Lil Flip raps about Kim Kardashian while Hurricane Chris raps about Halle Berry, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever sucks, Nick is listening to a lot of video game music from vgmusic.com (Contra is the best), the guys reminisce about watching Booker T. play live, Death of Autotune prompts Nick to serenade Neal with Believe (you know, by Cher), the guys wanna know what happened to Alia Shawkat, and Nick talks about Captain America #600 (new) and Iron Man #182 (old).

 
 AudioShocker Podcast #85 [46:22m]: Play Now | Download

War Machine What If? Hyper Combo Wallpaper!

What if War Machine kicked your ass?

Ye olde fist of War Machine is coming at cha, baby!

DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER :: 1280 X 1024 :: 1440 X 900 :: 1600 X 1200

Obviously I have some sort of weird addiction to War Machine. He’s in about 50% of all the Hyper Combo Wallpapers I’ve ever published. And my love for Marvel vs. Capcom certainly doesn’t diminish my infatuation with War Machine whatsoever.

While browsing the Internet for more hi-res Rhodey art, I stumbled upon an early Dan Slott issue – What If? #63: What if War Machine Had Not Destroyed the Living Laser? The art you see here is courtesy Manny Galan. I extracted the War Machine image from the cover, Photoshopped it at a high DPI using the cutout filter, and ended up with the excellent desktop wallpaper you see here.

Thanks to Demian’s Gamebook for the cover scan. Now go make sure that you get your ass back here next Monday for a new Hyper Combo Wallpaper!

More: War Machine Hyper Combo Wallpaper Archives!

Captain America Forever…

Let’s be honest: we all saw it coming. However, I expected Monday’s news to be a bit more sensational than the return of Steve Rogers… especially considering that it managed to peak at #3 on CNN’s top 10 news stories by mid-day.

But no, it’s just that simple. Steve Rogers is back. That’s what Reborn is all about. The “how” of his return is, I assume, the real shocker here.

I went to the comic shop on Monday evening, which turned out to be a great idea. Not necessarily great because of Captain America #600 (which is a good comic, by the way), but great because I got to hang with Phantom of the Attic’s Wayne Wise and the Comic Book Pitt’s Scott “The Duke.” On a normal Wednesday, it’s too busy to hang out and really talk. But on a slow Monday (which it was, despite the Monday release of Cap #600), I had all the time in the world to bullshit before I bought the comic and walked out the door.

So what about Cap’s return? He barely ever left, right? This could easily be called “Forever” instead of “Reborn”… except that I think the Reborn title has some literal significance here. Sharon Carter remembers shooting Steve with some sort of wide-mouth gun-shaped thing. To me, it looks like she took a tissue sample with it.

And then we see Sin, the Red Skull’s baby girl, in the jail infirmary. She’s restrained to her stretcher. But she also looks sort of pregnant, doesn’t she? Obviously there’s more to meets the eye because Crossbones won’t stop saying how people have no idea what really happened.

And then, of course, the Red Robot Skull sits around for a couple pages and soliloquizes about how loved the tension he had with Steve Rogers. He just couldn’t get enough of the back and forth fighting. He wanted to kill Cap, of course, but he was also exhilarated by the prospect of battling him constantly. I wonder if he just sits around all day and reminisces like this. The Red Skull has always been a nostalgia-deluded fool under Brubaker, hasn’t he?

Suffice to say that I was far more fascinated by the villains in Cap #600. Truthfully, I enjoyed the appearances by Falcon, Rikki, Patriot, and the other heroes. But the baddies were so much more compelling. Plus, the villains seemed to drop way more hints about the direction of Reborn.

The X-Men Reborn…

X-Men Forever #1YES! YES, BABY, YES! This is what I’ve been missing!!!

I grew up on Chris Claremont’s writing. I’ve always loved his technique (honestly, I think the drama and the dense prose of his work is part of what makes it so much fun). He’s distilled his infamous Uncanny X-Men style down to its most engaging elements in X-Men Forever #1. If you’ve loved Claremont’s work in the past, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll love this first issue.

Some out there have been heavily hating on Claremont for the past decade. Personally, I’ve loved some of his most recent writing. Though New Exiles wasn’t my bag, I thought his latest run on Uncanny X-Men was just starting to pop with brilliance when he was shuffled off of the title (also, I think he suffered a heart attack around that time). While I found his collaboration with Alan Davis and Oliver Coipel to be decent, I found his work with Chris Bachalo and Billy Tan to be wonderful. Grey’s End was a chilling few issues that used a fascinating interpretation of the passage of time to tell a riveting tale. As for other recent work, I was also moved by CC’s issue of Excalibur that explored Nocturne’s frustration with her paralysis.

And while those comics were near and dear to my inner Claremont fan, they weren’t nearly as indulgent as X-Men Forever #1. When I say indulgent, I don’t mean it in a bad way. I mean indulgent like rich ice cream or expensive chocolate – indulgent like a delicious desert. Working with Tom Grummet, who’s been attached to Claremont for a couple of years now, seems to only deepen the indulgence. I’ve long been a fan of Grummet’s work and this issue may be some of his most enjoyable pencils to date.

All in all, this feels like a rebirth of the X-Men to me. Maybe I’m just too old school to properly move on from the glory days of John Byrne, Paul Smith, and John Romita, Jr. But I don’t care. X-Men Forever just feels right to me. Though I’ve vowed to shy away from as many $3.99 single issues as possible, I can’t deny myself Forever (get it?). I await issue #2 with bated breath.

A Podcast with Ross and Nick 002 – Pink Scarf with No Shirt

The saga continues! Ross Campbell and Nick Marino develop their answer to the World Superhero Registry: Nik Neptune, real-life supervillain. Actually, it’s more like Nick forces Ross to help him. Meanwhile, Ross talks about some of the details behind Wet Moon 5. Nick tries to squeeze as much info out of him as he can, but Ross refuses to give up any plot spoilers. For all the comic artists out there, Ross does give up a lot about the nuts and bolts of how the art of Wet Moon 5 came together. Then Ross makes tea and eats some dried apricots. Seriously. (We promise next week will be more exciting.)

 
 A Podcast with Ross and Nick #2 [27:45m]: Play Now | Download