If they kill Darryl tonight, it’s time to fight.

Starting with some zombie cosplay in preparation for the evening.

Even with one foot.

So basically, dude gets his foot cut off instead of Rick getting his hand cut off (as in the comic)?  Fair trade.

So far, season 3 is the best season ever.

Lots of zombies coming:

• The “father of all zombies,” George A. Romero, is working on a comic for Marvel, which will not take place in the Marvel Universe or the Marvel Zombies Universe.  The project has no title yet.
• Fred Van Lente is working on a zombie comic for Dynamite, also untitled.  He says it will be funny, which, based on some his writing credits (Great Lakes Avengers, e.g.), seems highly probable.
• A major character on The Walking Dead will die this season.  Not sure that’s news—don’t they kill someone off every season?
• The Marvel Zombies Halloween issue is out now.  But be warned: It’s kinda dull.

Tom Savini on the set of one of the greatest movies ever made, Dawn of the Dead.

The final episode of season two of The Walking Dead set a viewership record for basic cable, so I know many of you are watching it. Hell, if you read my site you’re the key demographic. And I think we all can agree that this season wasn’t as good as the first one. While season one focused on quiet moments of horror between extensive character development and a fast-paced plot, season two involved a lot of hand-wringing angst and, frankly, really stupid and out-of-character actions. Laurie decides to leave camp to look for Rick, leaving her son with strangers? Shane seems to change, to understand the role he must play, only to completely revert by the next episode. And why won’t Rick just shoot the bastard? And what was with Rick’s meltdown in the finale? Oh, and Laurie goading Shane into killing Rick by telling him she forgives him and what they had was real makes her eligible for the “Iago of the Year” award. Her character has become the stereotypical woman, who uses her sexuality to rile up men and keep everyone off balance. She’s annoying, and she needs to go.

There were also a lot of strange, unexplainable issues and errors. Night becomes day and day becomes night with no real sense of elapsed time. Laurie crashes her car when there’s no traffic whatsoever anywhere. Zombies seem to be completely silent until they are right on top of you—even their stench doesn’t give them away.

And even some of the big reveals weren’t all that shocking: The whisper at the CDC from season one, it turns out, was that “we’re all infected,” meaning that when we die we will be zombified. I’m not sure why this is such a big deal to everyone, and I certainly don’t understand why Rick felt the need to keep it a secret.

On the other hand, Sophie coming out of that barn was one of the most shocking, wrenching things on TV this year, and it rewarded us for tolerating the slower pace of the season’s first half. And Dale’s death came out of nowhere, to great effect. (He was getting annoying anyway.) And we’re finally starting to see Rick and Carl act the way they’re supposed to act—getting some sac and manning up. The father/son dynamic is what drives the book, and it’s been wholly absent from the series.

And it’s become a true comic-book-show: Serialized, with high action points and constant threat of danger. In many ways, the final four episodes of season two marked a broad departure from the slow horror of season one towards adventure and hard action—which is really the spirit of the comic. The book is much more about people fighting to stay alive with their loved ones than it is about horror and death. It’s not really a scary book.

And it’s one of the few shows I look forward to every week.

On the whole, I have to give the first half of season two a “good” not a “great” rating, for the reasons above, but it got close to greatness by the end. And if we can look toward season three as something new—something that will build off of the momentum from Shane’s death and not something that will veer back towards the “horror of discovery” from season one—I think our expectations will be appropriate.

And I predict we’ll enjoy ourselves.

Not a ton of news this time, but what there is is pretty good: New Grant Morrison and Brian Wood projects; more details on TV’s The Walking Dead; and the new Stan Lee video game. But before you hit the break, peep this:

THE RETURN OF TEEN TITANS GO!—THE GREATEST SUPERTOON EVER.

As part of the Cartoon Network DC Block, beginning the first Saturday in March. You have to tape a Green Lantern CGI ‘toon, but you can always fastforward through it to get to the shorts and the new “Young Justice” episode. I know that’s what I’ll be doing. Press reports say that the original voice actors will return for this reunion of new shorts based on the groundbreaking anime/animation mix of Teen Titans Go!
Read more…

They have totally changed the opening to the Walking Dead.

Now, hit the break for lots more foolishness, including the latest on the “real” Batman movie, the status of the Deadpool flick, Green Arrow’s TV show, new Garth Ennis work, and the latest on The Walking Dead.
Read more…

From Marvel

Celebrating the best of the year….Hit the break.

Read more…

IGN published a top 100 comic book heroes that made me crazy, both in its predictability (Hey! Superman and Bats are #s 1 and 2!), overinclusiveness (every single Robin except Damian Wayne (who is the most interesting one by far), as well as Superboy and Supergirl?  Really?) and its attempts to be esoteric without providing sufficient justification (Groo makes the list, but they don’t really say what makes him so essential; James Gordon makes the list, but Aunt May and Uncle Ben don’t–nor does Jarvis; and Nova makes the list, but nobody really gives a shit about Nova).  Maybe it was the list’s sketchy criteria for placement: “Picked by their cultural impact, character development, social relevance, general cool factor, and importance of storylines, these are the best of the best.

It made me so nuts, I made my own list.  Yes, there’s a lot of overlap.  But mine is better.  Because I said so.

Note: If you’re just looking for a list without supporting arguments, you can jump to the last page of this post.  But you can’t tell me I was wrong to put Thor at #33 unless you go and read why.  So, read every page and then tell me why I’m full of $#!+.

Enjoy!

Read more…