allaboutduncan is really Phillip Duncan and he's a web developer, a husband, a father, a T-Ball coach, the editor of Superheroes-R-Us, a WordPress junkie, a reluctant DotNetNuke builder, and a jQuery fan.
// October 6th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web
Halloween is getting close, but even if it weren’t, the above 2 items might have to be purchased. Both are available on Amazon for less than $11 each. These would go perfect with the Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Iron Man, Batman, and Spider-Man role play items that Carter has.
// March 20th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // DVD Menus
This cartoon is pretty bad, I’ll admit it. However, I remember loving it as a kid because it had the Thing from the Fantastic Four.
In this series, the Thing is Benjamin “Benjy” Grimm and he’s a high school student. No mention of the FF is made and he can control his transformation into the Thing by using his Thing Ring. By touching the two halves of the ring together (one on each hand) he can transform into the Thing. He’s constantly using his Thing powers to rescue his friends from everyday dangers. Rarely does he face off against any super-villain, but there is the occasional bad guy.
This was a hard series to track down. I finally found great copies through a friend. They were new recordings from Boomerang. I took the set and created a nice menu using some artwork from a Marvel Comics hardback book that details the history of their television projects. It originally aired in a 1-hour block with a Flintstones show and was called Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, although the two cartoons never crossed over.
The first segment, a very loose adaptation of Marvel Comics’ character The Thing, consisted of stories following the Thing as a teenager named Benjy Grimm who transforms into the rock-skinned superhero by touching together magic rings and reciting the words “Thing ring, do your thing!”
The stories centered mostly around Benjy at Centerville High School with his friends Betty, her rich boyfriend Ronald, Kelly (Betty’s kid-sister) and teacher Miss Twilly. Kelly was the only person who knew about Benjy’s secret.
Twenty six 11-minute episodes of The Thing were produced; 2 shorts aired per show.
from Wikipedia
// March 12th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // DVD Menus
I don’t claim that this is a good show, in fact, I know it’s not. What it is though, is good, cheesy, superhero fun.
Based on the Malibu Comics (later purchased by Marvel) series of the same name, Nightman is really saxophonist Johnny Domino. After being struck by lightning, he finds he is telepathically tuned to the frequency of evil (what!?). This gives him an edge in tracking down bad guys. With the help of high-tech suit that gives him the power of flight and a laser eye, Domino begins fighting crime as Nightman.
Produced by Glen A. Larson (look for his character Manimal in Season 2), who also createdAutoman and Knight Rider
Nationally syndicated Chicago WGN channel aired these a few years ago and I managed to get all but two episodes. After quite a bit of searching, I tracked down nice quality versions of the two missing episodes and was able to finish the set. Now I can watch the badness whenever I want thanks to my Nightman DVD set.
// February 4th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Cartoons
I had heard about this cartoon and think I posted the teaser image before, but this is the first footage I’ve seen. Looks like another alternative take on the X-Men. While it’s cool there’s another X-Men cartoon in the works, this one doesn’t look different enough to stand out. Why make another? What’s it going to show that the other two incarnations didn’t. Yes, there’s no Professor X and Wolverine looks to be the focus, but other than that, it looks to visually similar to the X-Men Evolution cartoon.
I’ll still watch it.
The preview is gone, hope you saw it when it was there. Seems like the company got into a little trouble over using some unauthorized Foo Fighters music in the video. Oops.
// February 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Comics
Just a few interesting notes from the weekend.
A large batch of new photos were posted at the Iron Man movie site. Several great shots in there, including different versions of the armor. The one above is a favorite. Seems to explain the movie all by itself. Still can’t get over how cool this is looking. If you didn’t like the Super Bowl commercial for Iron Man, there is not hope for you.
Next up, Marvel has posted a list of the 10 Greatest X-Men. the whole list seems kind of redundant. One, since it’s from Marvel, what kind of perspective do they have. As I was reading it, There were one or two entries where I thought “oh, look at my, I’ve got a new series coming out.” Most of the list I do agree with and I’d expect any longtime fan to as well.
Finally, my favorite question/article I’ve read in a while… Can a Lightsaber Cut Through Superman? If the lightsaber were made with a piece of green kyptonite as its crystal – of course it could. How big of a geek am I when I read it and I think, “of course, that makes perfect sense.”
// January 31st, 2008 // No Comments » // Comics
Warning: The above film contains Zombie Violence. Someone’s gone and made a Marvel Zombies fan-film–and it’s pretty good.
Zombies are all the rage and Marvel has been riding that wave with their insanely popular series Marvel Zombies
The fan film was bound to happen and at least it’s really well done. I would actually like to see more. There are rumors circulating that Marvel is going to do a Direct-to-DVD Marvel Zombies animated film. I’d definitely check that out.
As much as I hate to say it. The original series (and the sequel) have both been fun. The Army of Darkness crossover was a little forced, but the two series by Robert Kirkman have been fun, skewed looks into a twisted version of the Marvel Universe. Kirkman has managed to keep the series fresh, which doesn’t seem surprising, since he’s the mastermind behind the amazingly good Zombie series “The Walking Dead” from Image comics.
One of the few series that I’ve collected in trades (they’re up to 7 volumes now). It’s a fresh and fleshed out (no pun intended) look at the zombie genre that not only explores an reality the George Romero dreamed up, but what would happen to the few humans that survived and what they would be willing to do to stay safe. Definitely worth picking up all 7 volumes.
// January 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Movies
Found that image over at ENewsInternational the other day and I thought that it looked awful familiar. I dug out my The Incredible Hulk TV Series DVDs
Kudos go out to Occasional Superheroine for beating me to the punch on posting the relation to the old TV show. I guess they’re really playing the movie as an homage to the TV show, especially since they’re including the “Walking Man” theme. Now, if they’d only include the Disco Version of the Hulk Walking Man theme, there would be no reason not to see the movie.
// January 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Comics
Nice, new photo of Tony Stark (Robery Downey Jr.) building/testing the later version of the Iron Man armor.
With any superhero flick, the beginnings of its success is based on the visuals. Great story has to be there, but if the visuals (or look) is all wrong, fans won’t show up to check the story out.
Every look at Iron Man seems to be visually 100%.
Speaking of Iron Man, you should definitely check out the Iron Man Fan Film by David Guivant that’s currently over on ScreenRant. Featuring a few Iron Man supporting characters and Avengers teammates, it’s amazingly well done and makes me wish there were a real show like that being developed.
// January 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Comics
Evidently there’s an amazing showing happening in Los Angeles at Gallery 1988. Running through February 1st, “Under the Influence: A Tribute to Stan Lee” features artwork inspired by the Marvel Comics creations of Stan Lee. Check out Collider.com for a nice set of photos from the show.
If you like what you see, it might be worth keeping your eyes on the Gallery 1988 store and the G1988 Crazy4Cult site, as they’ve got tons of great art for sale and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the Marvel stuff eventually shows up there.
UPDATED:Here’s a blog that has great, large, and clear photos of most of the work that’s in the exhibit. Stan Lee Tribute Artwork.
// January 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Comics
The big news currently floating around the comic blogs is the recent resolution to the Spider-Man “One More Day” storyline where Spider-Man (Peter Parker) attempts to save a dying Aunt May.
Proceed no further if you don’t want the story spoiled.
To set things up, Aunt May was hit by a sniper’s bullet–originally meant for Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Early in 2007, Peter Parker revealed to the world that he was Spider-Man. After leaving the protection of the Avengers, his immediate family (Aunt May and Mary Jane) were placed in danger. That leads us to Aunt May taking a bullet from the sniper and being in critical condition in the hospital.
It’s a commonly know fact that current Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics (Joe Quesada) did not like a married Spider-Man. For those that don’t know, Spider-Man married Mary Jane Watson in 1987. It was a media event back then and received a lot of news/press coverage. Joe Q. stated many times that he wanted to erase the marriage, but didn’t want to divorce the couple.
So. . . To make this long story short, Peter and MJ essentially make a deal with the devil (the Marvel Universe version is referred to as Mephisto) who “takes” their marriage away stating that he will feed off of the pain it will cause the couple. At the end of the story, Pete wakes up to find Aunt May alive and well downstairs cooking him wheat-cakes for breakfast and later goes to a party where it’s revealed that his long-dead friend Harry Osbourne is now alive and well again (Mephisto’s idea of a joke or a bonus?).
The two problems with the story are so evident that even Jill pointed them out when I described the story to her (bear in mind, she has only seen the Spider-Man movies) and she pointed out the following two reasons she didn’t like it (which mirror my own):
Finally, ComicBookResources is running a 5-part interview with Joe Quesada about the entire story and I found this little nugget in part 3.
The truth of the matter is that if the fans truly want a married Peter and MJ with kids, then we have an incredible book called “Spider-Girl.” If this is truly what fandom wants, to see Peter go through the natural progressions of life, then I expect orders on “Spider-Girl” to go through the roof in the next month.
That’s marketing talk right there. If fans really wanted to read the adventures of an unmarried Peter Parker, then they could have been (and like have been) reading the 110+ issues of Ultimate Spider-Man that Marvel also publishes. That series has been the only consistently good Spider-Man book for many years.
Joe Q. wanted an unmarried, adult-aged Spider-Man, and being the EIC, he gets what he wants.
Even with all of this griping and disagreement with the method, I’ll have to admit I’m intrigued by the creative teams they have lined up to produce the “Amazing Spider-Man” comic 3 times a month. Names like Dan Slott, Steve McNiven and John Romita Jr. could get me to read “Amazing Spider-Man” again and enjoy the stories.
At the end of the day, I don’t have to like the method, but maybe, just maybe, the results will be good.
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