Brainsplurge reviews Casino Royale

The original was better.

Yippee!!! (or indeed, not)

We went to see Yippee!!! tonight. We're both in general agreement with the review, except I liked the music a lot more than either the reviewer or Meg did, and an early Come to Daddy bit showed promise, but yeah, it was shite.


As Meg said, "I was happy when the monkey came on stage; not because it was a monkey, but because it meant that the whole thing had to be almost over."

I know one of them's a basketball player and at least one is a burglar

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 93 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I'm not sure how accurate this is, as I plugged my mate Liam in there, and it claimed that there was no one called "Liam" in the US. No one at all. Dubious.

Whatever Happened to Evil Thor?

At the beginning of Ultimates 2 #11, we see an ersatz (presumably Russian) Thor take down Air Force One and scare the pants off George Bush. He then disappears for the rest of the issue, and makes no appearance at all in Ultimates 2 #12. Where did he go? #13 will apparently revolve around a fight between the real Thor and his brother Loki, and while I wouldn't be surprised to see Evil Thor pop up to aid Loki, it wouldn't explain where he was during #12...

Windy

This is what you miss when you get up late. A tornado? Crikey.

Another Brad strip is up here. I'm working on more right now.

Vamped Up

After far too long, I've returned to my (ostensibly) ongoing subplot for Brad the Vampire, kicking off this time with #396. How long this stint will last, I know not.

Bad Plan...

That's right Iron Man, put the Marvel Universe's most inspirational figure in an enclosed facility with hundreds of superpowered people, most, if not all, of whom will be at least sympathetic to his cause. I mean, it's not like Captain America's the kind of tactical genius who could organise a jailbreak within hours of arrival, or anything lke that.

It's a shame that X-Statix got cancelled. I'd have loved to have seen them do a Civil War tie-in. They could team up with Dazzler to do a "stop the war" charity record or something.

How Civil War Might Be Saved

If the last issue consists of a Thor versus Thor fight, with the real Thor utterly kicking the arse of Tony Stark's weird sex-clone-thing, it won't make up for the abundant clichés, the complete lack of much-promised moral/political analysis, or the woefully badly written characters.

But it'll be spectacular.

Re-Assembled At Last?

Warning: Geeky comics post!

Marvel have released a preview of their new Mighty Avengers series, a comic designed to win back the old Avengers fans who, like me, have abandoned Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers. In some ways, this is a nice friendly move from Marvel, as Bendis' series sells shedloads, and the company could just sit back and watch the money come in, regardless of the feelings of the established fanbase (who, for all their moaning about how much better the old days were, could only manage to muster up about half of today's sales figures).

But I won't be buying this new series, as it seems to be woefully misjudged. The warning signs were there when Marvel announced that they'd be producing a series for the old fans, written by the very same writer who'd alienated them in the first place. And from the preview, it seems that what Bendis evidently thinks is missing from his New Avengers is lots of fighting. While that is indeed missing from his slow-moving, indulgently scripted anti-superhero comic, it might also be nice to include some effective characterisation and a semblance of plot, like the original Avengers title did. To be fair, the preview is only a handful of pages in length, but it reeks of superficiality and fundamental creative misjudgement.

Oh well. I still have my back issues.

Rampant Idiocy

It. Is. A. Story. It. Is. Not. Real.