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 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 (12/21/11)

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

Avengers #20

                     In this issue we find ourselves right where the last one left off, with the Avengers announcing their new line-up then Norman Osborn shows up and ruins their show. He goes on and on how he was held without trial and how he is going to come back and reclaim The Avengers. Red Hulk shuts his hologram down and then the Avengers go into red alert and search for where Osborn may be hiding out. My favorite part of this issue is when Hawkeye says that everything Osborn said wasn't wrong, how they imprisoned him without trial and whatnot. But in the end I found the book kinda slow and missing a certain something, it wasn't the art since I love David Acuna's work on this book and others that he has done. So it falls to Bendis, I understand he is doing a build up for the final show-down but it doesn't have to be slow it can be fast and fun like the New Avengers right now. I actually like the New Avengers stuff alot more than the Avengers stuff right now due to it being fast-paced and interesting. All and all I'll continue on the for the rest of Bendis's run on it. 

NO THUMBS(Neither Good Nor Bad)

Justice League #4

           Aqua-man is the newest addition to the Justice League making his debut in this issue. He shows his unique power early on by having some sharks jump up and bite into some of Darksied's minions. The only thing I didn't like was how different Johns writes Aqua-Man in this issue from how he writes it him in the Aqua-man title. This issue also saw the birth of Cyborg, one of my favorite characters. After Cyborg awakes from his transformation he runs off and then gets teleported to the rest of new heroes of the world. My question is, if Cyborg is with the Justice League from the beginning will he be more of a higher profile hero? Anyway on the final pages of the issue we see the first new 52 appearance of Darksied. I still not one-hundred percent sure that I'll keep up with the series after the current arc but we'll see.

THUMBS UP!    

Batman #4

    Remember that explosion from last issue and how DC played it up, when it was nothing the fearless Batman couldn't handle! This book has been really good thus far, sure in this issue it slows down quite a bit but that doesn't stop it from being a good book. In it we see Bruce's 'first case' when right after his parents' death he was convinced that the Court Of Owls had killed his parents. His search however had come up with nothing. After the story of his first case Batman goes into the sewers to the location of his great great grandfather's death. He is then confronted by the talon and is pushed into a pit in which he lands in a maze. Again not the most exciting issue but still good.

THUMBS UP!

Uncanny X-Force #19

                The Dark Angel Saga has ended! Warren no longer remembers who he is, Genesis is the clone of Apocalypse and is being sent to Wolverine's school, the Nightcrawler of The Age Of Apocalypse Universe is staying here to hunt down Dark Beast. This issue is an in-between wrap-up/lead-in for the series. All the people from The AOA Universe(except AOA Nightcrawler) go back back home, before going Wolverine gives AOA Sabertooth the same sword he used to kill the 616 version of him, which I found pretty amusing. What I hated about this issue was the art, it was horrible. Every single character had huge ears and it almost made the issue unreadable. If I didn't really like the Dark Angel saga I would have skipped this issue. But like I said before I'll continue with this series as long as Reminder is writing it.

THUMBS DOWN! 

Venom #11

              Flash Thompson has went AWOL and is now going to Las Vegas to collect something for the Crime-Master since he is blackmailing him. Pretty straight forward story, nothing too out there. Although we do find out the origin of the Jack O'lantern in this issue and see Venom and Jack rescue some miners. The scene where they rescue the miners has the best art of the whole book, in it you can see dust particles in the air and the miner's lamps have the light blur effect that was made popular by the recent Star Trek movie. And although the cover points to Flash using his sobriety he does not. The issue was good I thought, I look forward to the Red Hulk finding Venom and having a show down and also the Eddie Brock story being fulfilled.  

THUMBS UP!   

Wolverine and the X-men

     I really liked Schism, well except for the last two issues but other than that it was a great event book, so when I heard that Wolverine would have his own school I had to sign up for the book. And this issue keeps on delivering want I what from it. I really liked how it focused on Quentin Quire for the majority of the issue and how in the end he was the one that saved the day. My favorite scene was at the end when he is sitting on a beach chair and has a sign that says 'Send more Sentinels' I look forward to seeing where Jason Aaron takes the school.

THUMBS UP!