Jake's Sketchbook 2/24/12

So on this wonderful Friday afternoon I come to you with some sketchs from my sketchbook. Please note that I am only sixteen and an amateur. Also sorry for the low image quality.

After seeing a lot of hate towards the new design for Mr. Freeze I decided to make my version of him for the new 52.

I LOVE the current story arc in the Batman comic right now, which is why I drew this.

Who would you cast?

      Today I am introducing a new segment called who would you cast? where I tell you who I would cast for my favorite super heroes and heroines. First up is Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner James Gordon.

Eric Bana - Bruce Wayne

    I first thought about this after seeing Hanna. In the movie Bana plays a super spy that just wants his daughter to be safe. Throughout the film Bana is quite the badass. In addition Bana has acted in super hero movies before so it wouldn't be too much of a jump for him. He also looks a lot like Bruce Wayne. 

Christopher Plummer - Alfred Pennyworth

Bryan Cranston - Commissioner James Gordon

What am I reading?

   Today I decided to make a list of all the titles I am currently reading. Please note this will be super repetitive. So here it is:

Action Comics - Before Morrison came to Action Comics I hated Superman. I found him overrated and boring. But now I can't wait to read his adventures in the pages of Action Comics.


Animal Man - At first I wasn't one-hundred percent sure about this book, in fact it was one of the ones I was going to skip. Now that the first story arc has come to a close with the prospect of a Swamp-thing crossover this is one of my favorites.


Aquaman - I really enjoyed Aquaman's story in the pages of Brightest Day and I love Ivan Reis' art so getting Aquaman was a no-brainier. Aquaman has been great so far and I am happy to read it.


Batman - Who isn't reading this? This is DC's best book on the market.


Batman And Robin - I loved the first volume of this book when Morrison and Quitely were doing, and after they left it wasn't quite the same. Thankfully with the start of the New 52 this book has gotten a lot better landing it a spot on my pull-list.


Captain America - Brubaker is truly the best person to write Captain America, and with Mcniven, Davis, and now Zircher on the book it has been a good read. 


Captain America and Bucky - The only reason I read this book is for the fantastic art, oh and the story isn't that bad either.


Daredevil - Daredevil has always been one of my favorite heroes, but I was burned by him through Shadowland. Mark Waid's run on him has 'healed my wounds'


The Punisher - Greg Rucka and  Marco Checchetto have given us a good Punisher which is why I read.


Venom, Secret Avengers and Uncanny X-force - I have listed these all together because they are written by the king of Black Ops Rick Reminder, and as long as he is on the books I will read them.


Justice League - Although the current arc isn't the greatest this is the forerunner DC book so I read it.


Moon Knight - Brian Micheal Bendis and Alex Maleev, need I say more?


Wolverine And The X-men - I really liked Schism and I was on Wolverine's side throughout the whole thing. And it doesn't hurt that Jason Aaron is on the book. I believe that this is Marvel's best book on the market.


Swamp Thing - Like Animal Man I hesitated to pick this up, which was stupid since it has my favorite writer on board, Scott Snyder. The art is awesome also.

So thats what I'm reading, what are you?

Weekly Write-up 2/15/12

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

Batman #6

             Bruce Wayne has been pushed to his limit. We see that yes he was stabbed through the gut and it wasn't some trick or hallucination. Then to top it all of he has to meet the Court of Owls, who vary in age, the court then decides that they don't only want him dead but they want it to be a painful death. Lucky when all seems lost the caped crusader gets a second wind and beats the crap out of the Talon that was hunting him down. Bruce does escape from the labyrinth into an underground river. Of course that is too easy and the river is topped over with a sheet of glass. The sequence ends with what seems like Bruce drowning. After that the book goes back to the Court of Owls and we see them discard the Talon that Bruce Wayne fought and then they give the order to release the rest of the Talons. The scene kinda reminded me of the release the Kraken from Clash of the Titans. Snyder and Capullo once again make this book the best on the market.

THUMBS UP!

PICK OF THE WEEK!  

Daredevil #9

       Daredevil has had a pretty good last couple of days that was until his buddy Froggy told him that his father's coffin was missing from its grave, along with many others. So Daredevil straps on the old red outfit and goes into the earth to see what happened to all the coffins. He soon sees that it was the Mole Man and his minions that were stealing the coffins to do nothing but loot them. The art in this story it incredible with Rivera switching from Daredevil's point of view to what is really there. 

THUMBS UP! 

Weekly Write-Up 2/8/12

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

Secret Avenger #22

   This marks the start of Rick Reminders run on Secret Avengers. Lately Reminder has been the go to guy for black ops book in the Marvel U, like Venom and Uncanny X-force. I found this issue's story to be ok not a one in a million issue but not bad. However where the story lacked the art made up for it. After this issue Hardman became my favorite artist.

THUMBS UP!

PICK OF THE WEEK

Batman and Robin #6

    The origin of Nobody continues as we find out what lead to Wayne and Nobody becoming enemies. In the second half of this issue we see Robin reveal his true plans of getting close to Nobody only to then turn on him. The story and art in this issue is a good blend with Batman and Robin developing a new standard for their book.

THUMBS UP!

Wolverine and the X-men #5

        Apparently ruling a school full of mutants is very expensive and now that Angel is no longer has control over his company the school is having a cash flow problem. So whats Wolvie to do? Go gambling with Kid Omega of course! Meanwhile Kitty Pride is not pregnant! She simply has a bunch of brood hatchlings inside her. All in all the issue is pretty standard this week, a good issue but nothing that blew me out of the water.

THUMBS UP! 

Weekly Write-Up 2/1/12

                                                     *SPOILERS** SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

Venom #13

     I was plesantly surprised by this book, I knew Reminder was good at handling team books but I wasn't sure how this would be. Thankful everything works out great. The story focuses on the Prince of hell opening a portal from hell and unleashing it onto the Earth. Thankfully our heroes are able to contain it to just Las Vegas itself and fight Darkheart. I really hate Marvel's super natural side but this book really warmed me up to it. 

THUMBS UP!  

Punisher #8

      Dear Greg Rucka from now on only use Mark Checchetto for art in your books. THE ART IN THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING! Words cannot describe this book.

THUMBS UP!

PICK OF THE WEEK!

Winter Soldier #1 

        Brubaker's handling of Captain America and his characters has been phenomenal, he is without a doubt the best writer to ever grace the Captain America series. He continues his run with the addition of a new book that focuses on Bucky Barnes, who is thought to be dead by the rest of the Marvel U. We see Barnes trying to cleanup anything that was left behind by the Soviet's sleeper agents. The only thing I didn't like about the book was toward the end when it got a little confusing but other than that this book was all around good.

THUMBS UP! 

Weekly Write-up 1/125/12

*SPOILERS*       *SPOILERS*      *SPOILERS*

Aqua-man #5

      This issue is a one and done story of Aqua-man being thrown into the desert after going to the coast guard to offer his expertise. You see the coast guard found an Atlantis artifact that started going haywire so they called Aqua-man to see if he can help. After examining it for a few seconds a group of oddly dressed men come in and take the artifact by force. Aqua-man doesn't like this very much so he attempts to stop them by jumping onto their vehicle. During the ensuring battle he finds out that they are sea dwellers. Their vehicle crashes in the desert. After making his way back to the wreck Aqua-man puts the artifact into the water of one of the helmets, at which point a message is played revealing that it dated back to before Atlantis sunk. Aqua-man is then rescued by the coast guard and goes home. 

THUMBS UP!       

Captain America and Bucky #626

      Asmus, Brubaker, and Francavilla bring the goods once again in this issue. This is there final arc before Captain America and Bucky becomes Captain America and Hawkeye, or more like Captain America Team-up. Anyway in this issue we see Captain America go up against an android of Bucky. This Bucky leads Cap to a warehouse that is full of Cap killer robots. While this is going on The Human Torch and William Naslund the III are looking into the Adam II corpse that S.H.I.E.L.D. has. When they are dissecting it Naslund finds a ball attached to the skull of the Adam II, he hypotheses that the ball is a sort of black box device. The ball then actives and Naslund is turned into Adam III. Its pretty predicable what will happen in this issue but its still a pretty good issue.

THUMBS UP! 

Justice League #5

         It's time for the first confrontation between the Justice League and Darkseid, who is pretty scary. We find our heroes going in for round two in this issue after being blasted by Darkseid. One of the cool things that happen in this issue is seeing Green Lantern go up against Darkseid only to have Darkseid break through his attacks and ultimately break his arm. The only thing I don't like in this issue is the lack of Aqua-man, he's only appearance in it is when the team is rallying together to take out Darkseid.

THUMBS UP!

Secret Avengers 21.1

      Rick Reminder starts his run on Secret Avengers with issue, and if the rest of his run is like this we're sure to have another classic on our hands. In this issue we find Captain America taking Hawkeye on a mission in the country of Bagalia, a literal red light nation. Cap is trying to see if Hawkeye is fit to lead the Secret Avengers since he can no longer fulfill that role. This issue is a great jumping on point for anyone who wants to read Secret Avengers and its really awesome. The art is fantastic and though I really look forward to Hardman being on the book Zircher could do it and I would be fine with that.

THUMBS UP!

BOOK OF THE WEEK! 

Weekly Write-up 1/18/12

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS* SPOILERS*

Batman #5

    The last issue ended with Batman falling into a labyrinth. This issue picks up about a week after where he is still stuck in the labyrinth. Whats great about this is that we start to see Bruce slowly go insane throughout the book, which ends with him be stabbed through the gut by the Talon. I suspect that this is just in his head since in the shot he has the hands and feet of a owl or bat. The art in this issue is fantastic, I was never a fan of Capullo's work until now.

THUMBS UP!  

Daredevil #8

   The Devil and the Details Part 2. Waid wraps up this issue quite nicely with the team finding out that the stolen tech was actually stolen by its creator. The best scene in the book is when Daredevil and Black Cat hook up, Spider-man is in the background and says that this is his super-villain origin. It was okay nothing special, but not bad.

THUMBS UP! 

Moon Knight #9

Oh no the Moon Knight series is ENDING, not only that he is also leaving the Secret Avengers. I think this means one thing: Bendis is going to kill him. Please don't kill Moon Knight the series has been great so far and the characters are awesome. This issue is the start of the final showdown between Moon Knight and the kingpin of LA. I'm not going to reveal to much but someone gets mortally wounded.

THUMBS UP!

Venom #12

    Flash Tompson loses control once again in this issue and fights against Jack o'Lantern. I think the main thing in this issue is Flash breaking up with Betsy and turning to alcohol. I'm very interested and where Rick Reminder takes this series, especially with Venom joining the Secret Avengers.

NO THUMBS (Meh.)

Uncanny X-force #20

   I wasn't one-hundred percent thrilled with this issue, probably since I'm not a huge Captain Britain fan. I also felt that Reminder didn't really explain what the hell Otherworld is and why it has so much authority. And AoA Nightcrawler was a total douche! I hope it gets better as it goes on.

THUMBS DOWN!   

Comic Book Write-up 1/11/12

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

Amazing Spider-man #677

    Peter Parker is alone and looking for some love, who better to get with then Black Cat? Of course the Cat is up to no good in this issue. She is arrested and conected to the a robbery at Horizon Labs. Pete looking to get in Black Cat's good side joins up with Daredevil to find the missing tech. Overall this is a good issue with good art. I'm glad to see Mark Waid handle Spider-man so well after having spent the majority of his last year writing Daredevil. I look forward to the conclussion next week in Daredevil #8.

THUMBS UP!

Wolverine And The X-men #4

        The effects of the Dark Angel Saga reach the Jean Grey School. In this issue the school is introduced to two new members, Angel and Genesis. For those of you who don't know Angel has recently lost his memory of everything he was after the life seed was injected into him to erase Archangel from his system. Genesis is the clone of the kid Apocalypse that Famtonex killed in the fourth issue of X-force. The best part of this is is a page featuring one of the possible futures that Dehlok sees where Genesis assumes the form of Apocalypse. Its for this page that makes Wolverine and the X-men #4 the best issue this week.

THUMBS UP! 

ISSUE OF THE WEEK! 

Wolverine #300

    Everyone has been raving about Jason Aaron's run on Wolverine so I decided to start with issue 300 which was advertised as a great jumping on point. I have no idea who anyone is in this comic but I still had a great time reading it. In the story Wolverine has taken a trip to the clan-war-torn country of Japan, Tokyo to be exact. Even though I don't know the Characters their are still some notable ones such as Sabertooth and The Sliver Samurai. I look forward to reading the rest of Jason Aaron's Final Arc.

THUMBS UP!  

Brilliant #2

               I am a big fan of Bendis and Bagley so I though Brilliant would be Mind-blowing. Bagley hasn't failed since the art is pretty good but the story is so Meh. I feel this series has a lot of potential that hasn't been realized yet. 

THUMBS DOWN!

Batman and Robin #4

   Peter Tomasi once again proves that his Batman And Robin is going to be better than Grant Morrison's. The issue focuses on Ducard's origin. His father was basically a man-hunter/assassin. The father falls in love with the mother, they have Ducard. Turns out the mother was hired by a terrorist cell to kill the father. When Ducard found out he killed his mother. After that the father found out he took Ducard under his wing and trained him. 

THUMBS UP! 

Comic Book Write-up 1/4/12

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

Uncanny X-force 19.1

          Reminder continues his epic run this week by delivering once again. This issue focuses on the AoA(Age of the Apocalypse) X-men as they make their way their own universe. This issue primarily tells the story of The Prophet AKA William Stryker, who is not a mutant but just a regular guy and also a total BAD-ASS. In the issue he takes out a sentiental all by himself! This is my issue of the week.

THUMBS UP!

Action Comics #5

     Action Comics #5 features Superman's new origin in the DC universe! Grant Morrison starts this new origin story on Krypton during it's final hours. The Els first attempt to escape via the Phantom Zone they however are greeted by General Zod and his minions. Zod then reaches his hand through the portal in an attempt to grab Jor-El but Krypto stops him by biting his hand. In the end the portal is destoried with Kryto and Zod on the inside with leaves the possibility of Kryto coming back later on. Jor-El and his wife than send Supes away in a prototype model rocket they build with Brainic as the ship's A.I. The ship goes on to enter earth's orbit only to be found by the Kents. This half of the issue ends with the kryptonite from the rocket being stolen by a mysterious group of induvials and then a guest appearance by the more grown up Super-man and the Legion of Super Heroes. Did I say that the art in this is awesome? Because it is Andy Kubert once again delivers great art.

THUMBS UP!   

Swamp Thing #5

      Swamp Thing is not the most mainstream of the super-heroes of the new 52. But ever since Scott Synder took over with the book Swamp Thing is getting to be one of DC's best books on the market right now. In this issue we see the first battle between the Green and the Rot as Alec summons up vines to defend himself. The series continues with its unique panel layout that can also be found in the pages of the Flash and Batwomen. 

THUMBS UP!

Uncanny X-men #4

      OK I know I said that Uncanny X-men #3 was going to be the last issue of Uncanny that I was going to read, but after reading Kieron Gillen's AMA on reddit the other day I decided to give this issue a shot. This issue was awesome. It focuses on an alien being called the Phalanx that is captured by Mr. Sinister and experimented on. After Mr. Sinister destories the lab that the Phalanx is in the Phalanx escapes. The creature discovers it can no longer convert other beings to be it kind rather it can only absorb them. It then goes on to absorb an entire town in hopes of reaching back to the rest of it's kind but when it signals out nothing comes back meaning the rest of his race is dead. Realizing the horrible thing it had done it wishes nothing more than to die which the X-men are more than happy to comply with. This issue really redeemed Kieron Gillen in my eyes and look forward to other work that he'll do in the future. 

THUMBS UP!

Other Titles that I read this week:

Wolverine and the X-men: Alpha and Omega #1: THUMBS UP!

Stormwatch #5: THUMBS DOWN!

Punisher #7: THUMBS UP!

Justice League International #5: THUMBS DOWN!

O.M.A.C. #5: THUMBS UP!

Defenders #2: THUMBS DOWN!

Comic Book Write-Up (12/28/11)

       *SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

Aqua-Man #4

         I have really enjoyed Aqua-Mam ever since his resurrection in the pages of Blackest Day, in Brightest Day I found myself always looking forward to his part of the issues. When I heard that the creative team behind Blackest Night were going to be making the new Aqua-man comic I had to sign on, and the series so far has not disappointed me in the lease. In this issue we find Aqua-man rescuing the citizens that were captured by the dwellers of the Trench. At first Aqua-man tries to reason with to get them to stop eating people but it's to no avail and he has to close of the trench in which they dwell, pretty much killing them all off. The story is good but the art in this book is amazing, Ivan Reis once again delivers top quality for the books he is making. Also at the end of the book we get a preview to what to come for Aqua-man in the coming year, as he looks into who sunk Atlantis. 

THUMBS UP!  

Captain America And Bucky #625

        I am a big fan of Captain America he is one of my favorite super-heroes which is why I'm glad that they are doing a series that takes place both in the past but also a little bit in the present. In this book we see a story about the Captain America(William Naslund) and Bucky(Fred Davis) that took over after the original Cap and Bucky 'died'. It starts off with Davis telling his story of how he became Bucky. While he is telling his story an Android attacks him which is where Cap comes in and takes out the Android. After the fight Davis explains how the Android that had attacked that day was the same that had killed Naslund(Captain America) This then causes Steve Rogers to launch an investigation into why the android attacked and if the creator of the Android, Adam II, is back from  the dead. If any that made sense my hat goes off to you, my ramblings doesn't do the story justice. In the end I liked this issue it had good art and good writing, all a reader could wish for.

THUMBS UP! 

The Flash #4

     I haven't been reading comics for too long(only about two years) so at first I didn't know where to start. At first I was reading Deadpool, The Avengers, and Amazing Spider-man. It wasn't until I read a collected volume of Blackest Night that I got into DC stuff but after that I started reading Green Lantern and any book that Geoff Johns was doing at the time. So when I heard that Geoff Johns and an artist I had never heard of were going to do the Flash I decided to give it a try. Ever since that first issue I have been hooked on the Flash, he quickly became one of my favorite heroes. And that artist I had never heard of soon became my favorite artist and boy has he been doing a good job with this book. In this issue we see more of Manuel's past and how after his father died he vowed to kill the men responsible and so he signed up with a government agency and became a spy. But the agency conducted experiments on him that allowed him to regenerate limbs and whatnot. Manuel was them captured and tortued and after his jailers found out he could regenerate they started cutting of limbs. From those limbs bodies grew and thus the birth of Mob Rule(Yes I know that's lame) It was a good issue though and I'm curious to see where Manapul and Buccellato take this.

THUMBS UP!  

Ultimate Spider-man #5

       'It's really in bad taste.' Those are the only words I can think of when I hear mention of Ultimate Spider-man. Once would be ok but every single issue, come on Bendis. When Bucky took up Captain America's mantle people other characters didn't say it was in bad taste, the same is true of when Dick Grayson took up the Batman mantle. Anyways sorry for the little rant, other than the distasteful thing the book has been pretty good, we Miles go up against Electro this issue and then he is given a suit by Nick Fury. But the book it feels like it's missing something from it and I don't quite know what, its not the art because the art is excellent. I just found the writing Meh.

NO THUMBS(Meh.) 

Uncanny X-men #3

      Don't get me wrong I am a big fan of Kieron Gillen, but I have found it really hard to get into this book and like the characters that inhabit. Of course Cyclops has always been kinda a douche and Emma Frost isn't exactly the most humble X-man but that doesn't mean that the rest of the team has to be too. I feel like the only people who can relate to the characters in this book are rich snobs. It's to the point that I was rooting for Mr. Sinister to win. My favorite part of the book was when the Celestials show up that was cool. But unfortunately I think this will be the last issue I read of this until the team stops being so pompous. 

THUMBS DOWN!