Badass: A person whose extreme attitudes and behavior are admirable/cool.
I guess that when one has a website that features badasses from the past and also from the present, one should also proceed to write a book about badasses throughout history, a book that sheds light not only onto historical luminaries but also to the obscure ones as a reminder that badassery is one for the ages.
That one such person is Ben Thompson (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/) and his book is aptly titled Badass. With a title like that, it surely succeeded in attracting my attention in bookshelf filled with General Interest books.
Being a history buff, I’m pleasantly surprised that Mr. Thompson decides to kick off a book of badasses with those from Antiquity. Julius Caesar, Alexander and that 300 dude, Leonidas are presented here in their respective chapters with prose that mixes history fact and badass hyperbole. It’s adopted through the entire book and one example of such a mashup would be:
“Once upon a time there was this place called Sparta, and everyone who lived there was a total badass”
There are also guys and girls like Xenophon and Aggripina, which I bet you’ve not heard before, but Ben Thompson assures that they are badasses in their own right.
There are a total of 4 sections, right up to the modern era and despite the frequent abuse of badass vocabulary, I never got tired of reading Mr. Thompson’s unique take historical figures.
Overall, Badass a fun romp and an enjoyable read. Even though you might have some trouble separating historical fact and hyperbole in some instances, there’s Wikipedia you know…if you want the sterile, know-it-all facts, and that’s just not badass in my book.
I like the covers for both Green Lantern #51 and Green Lantern Corps # 45. Both feature a fallen Green Lantern going against his team mates/allies. In the case of GL #51, it’s Hal Jordan as Parallax versus the bunch of new Lanterns from the emotional spectrum.
GLC on the other hand, shows Guy Gardner in his Red Lantern form taking on his GLC team mates and allies. Fortunately, both Green Lanterns revert back to normal by the end of their respective books. Oops. Should have added a spoiler tag.
I don’t like The Sentry character introduced some time back by Marvel. A neurotic, schizophrenic hero with the power of a million exploding suns with a serious split personality disorder? Give me a break.
Having said that, I found Ares’ death at the hands of The Sentry in Siege #2 to be a little over the top. If Batman taught us that you can shoot a god (a comic book one) to death, The Sentry does one better by tearing him into gibs.
Did you know that there’s a Final Fantasy XII manga out there? One Manga has the unofficial English translations for the first 3 chapters. Here’s the description of the manga, taken from the site:
This is the story of a world called Ivalice. It is a time when the existence of magick is still commonplace, and soaring airships cover the vast sky. Princess Ashe has vowed to restore her ruined country. Together with a few companions, she waits for an opportunity to strike back. A direct adaptation of the hit RPG!
Looks like everyone is jumping on the digitial comics bandwagon; have you checked out the Archie comics on the iPhone? Anyways back in December, Disney introduced the Digicomics app for the iPhone/iPod touch.
This app is a collection of the most successful Disney comic books from around the world. The app allows users to choose from dozens of comics including Mickey Mouse’s epic adventures in Wizards of Mickey; Casablanca, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer starring your favorite Disney characters.
Disney’s Digicomics features:
Two free downloads from the Digistore: Disney’s A Christmas Carol featuring Scrooge McDuck, and SuperDuck.
The ability to purchase and download additional comics from the Digistore. It is loaded with dozens of comics including complete sets and volumes with new comics made available every week. Search characters and categories or browse Featured and Top Rated comics. Prices range from $0.99 to $1.99
Digicomics is tailor made for the collector. Collect complete sets of comics by character or category. You can even share pictures of your comics with friends.
Read your comics by scrolling pages or choose the Autoplay function and custom set your reading speed. Includes a handy Bookmark feature.
Includes comics from acclaimed writers and artists such as Stefano Ambrosio, Lorenzo Pastrovicchio, Giorgio Cavazzno, and many more.
New comics now available for purchase in Disney’s Digicomics include
A Christmas Carol #2
Donald Duck Agent Qu-Qu 7: A Diamond Jam
Mickey Mouse and the Flavored Bubbles
Scrooge McDuck and the Saint Valentine Trick
Superduck #2 Toyland
The Canterville Ghost
Digicomics is also available on Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) through the PlayStation Network’s Digital Comics Service which launched in December 2009. Check out the iPhone/iPod Touch version of Digicomics over here.
Have you checked out the one-shot X-Men Origins: Cyclops comic book? Yup, Charles’ red-eyed boy gets his own Origins title (albeit a one-shot) and there are pretty stunning revelations within.
Remember Cyclops’ first encounter with Magneto in an army base? Well, who would have thought that in the ensuing conversation that Scott Summers would be the one to broach the subject of a mutant brotherhood to Magneto, sowing the seeds to something that he (Cyclops) and the rest of the X-MEN would be battling.
While waiting for Tony Stark to recover from his vegetative state, take a look at the latest iteration of the Iron Man armour that will premiere after the Stark Disassembled story arc. The response I got from my friends were worthy of some LOLs.
Some commented it looked rather wussy. Personally, I feel like the armor looks a little too slick like those spandex suits worn by the X-Men with a bit of Samus Aran and light bulbs thrown in. In summary, it looks really generic, like a cookie cutter third grade manga robot. Anyone else care to add?
This is pretty cool, having gotten this bit of news off of Geoff John’s Twitter feed. So what comes after the Blackest Night? Well, the Brightest Day of course. It’s a bi-weekly title written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi. Ahhh..this is gonna be great for Green Lantern fans and those who love the Blackest Night series. DC Comics was on a roll in 2009, can they do the same as well for 2010?
I had a friend who actually shrieked “What, you had never read Dr Seuess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! when you were kid?!” LOL. My upbringing back then was typically British and that would mean reading material like J.R.R Tolkien and Enid Blyton in the same boat with English breakfast (which was a daily affair).
In any case, I actually had “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” read to me on Friday night. That’s right. The new e-book from Oceanhouse Media has a “Read to me” function and a very nice voice-over would narrate the story.I used this function when I was stuck in a particularly nasty traffic crawl trying to get from one end of KL to the other end.
Alternatively, you can choose to read the e-book yourself (sans narration). Obviously meant for kids who I’m sure cannot resist but to touch the screen because of the beautiful artwork shown, a voice-over would come on and name the particular item touched (a tree, Mount Crumpit, the Grinch, etc).
I must say that this was all very well done by Oceanhouse, creating such a kid-friendly e-book. The story is not that long, but the story and artwork should be able to keep kids occupied for a bit. Here’s a demo video for the e-book:
Check out Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! e-book over at the App Store, it’s available for just USD 3.99. Click here for details.
I know that Sunday is the customary Comics Book posts day for Nine Over Ten 9/10, but I would make an exception for today. Have you seen the cover of Superman/Batman #66? I can’t help but notice that Bizarro was drawn like another anti-hero of sorts. Check it out:
And compare with that of Hellboy below. It’s the eyes I tell you. So, have you seen any similarly drawn comic book characters lately?
