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Enough of the Twilight bullshit and it’s sequels. Let’s put some gun blazing action on the vampire/werewolf genre shall we? Starring Wetworks, the covert vampire hunting team that appeared in Image Comics in the 90′s. Created by Whilce Portacio and Brandon Choi, the story is about a team of black operative soldiers bonded with golden symbiotes, who battle against supernatural forces. Should they pursue doing this movie, I have the right actors in mind who could play the part.
Dane (Jackson Michael Dane) Reactivated his Gen-Factor. Gen-Factor prevents/protects Dane from bonding with the symbiote.
Mother-One (Rachel L. Rhodes)Cyborg. Effective laser protection system.
Grail (Joel A. Salvador) Energy Being, Energy shields and projection. Can extend his form to create energy melee weapons.
Dozer (Joseph H. Mendoza) Enhanced strength and size. Energy orbs provide sensory information about its surroundings.
Claymore (Clayton H. Maure)
Jester (Cord Dexter Lemoyne) Permanent Metal Liquid Form, Shapeshift, Requires no nourishment or rest.
Red (Persephone) Albino vampire Warrior.
Armand Waering leader of the Werenation.
Did I became a stranger in thine eyes?
Or have I lost my faith in thee?
For I am thy worthless child, am I not my father?
And thou art mine father, and I am thou slave.
I’ve toiled beneath the weight of sorrow,
Uncommon fate befall me, seething.
I’ve chosen to plucked out mine eyes and become blind,
Than to see mine enemies laugh at my misery.
My sins lay as though a piece of jewelry around mine neck,
Break it and save mine soul from death.
I’ve sewn my mouth shut I will speak no ill will,
I’ve let out a sigh and cried in defeat.
A short ambush interview on the Worlds Greatest Boxer on the Planet today, well sort of.
MANILAZOO: Tell me about yourself?
MANNY: Well I mean ah… I’m Manny.
MZ: What two or three accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction? Why?
MANNY: Well I mean ah… first is the Marquez fight… and ah… I drop his body three times on first round right?… and then ah… the second is ah… I mean you know… I met Freddie and teach me boxing… and third ah… I’m champion of eight divisions.
MZ: What do you do in your spare time, do you still box?
MANNY: Well ah… I still box because ah… because I love boxing, because after I box, I sing that’s why I love boxing.
MZ: What do you think it takes to be successful in this sport?
MANNY: Well… ah, train hard… just fight and fight… I’ll fight whichever my promoter wants me to fight, I’ll fight.
MZ: Will you fight Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time?
MANNY: ah… No.
MZ: What do you know about steroids?
MANNY: I don’t know, I never met him.
MZ: …
MZ: What do you think is the most critical public issue of our time?
MANNY: Well ah… I mean ah… me as a congressman?
MZ: What major problems have you encountered and how did you deal with them?
MANNY: I mean ah… well my problem is ah… Marquez you know? and ah… I don’t want to deal with him.
MZ: What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
MANNY: Well ah… happy and then ah… having a wife?
MZ: But you already have a wife.
MANNY: Really? I mean ah… ok sige.
MZ: Hmm.. well thank you Manny.
MANNY: Okee.
Shall I compare thee
Mine love, unto precious wine?
Bitter-sweet divine.
I admire thy eyes
Beads of crystal, brightly shone
Gleaming star at dawn.
Thy sweet pines I love
Taste like flagons dew, so I
Kiss thy breast with sigh.
Oh my fair maiden
Mine love, my sweet butterfly
Visit me when I die.
Are they out of their mind? DC’s Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds defied the odds by beating Marvel stalwarts such as Thor’s Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans as Captain America and James McAvoy as Prof. X of X-Men: First Class for the People’s Choice Awards “Favorite Movie Superhero”. It would have been more acceptable if were living in OA, the home planet of the Green Lantern Corps.
It was one of the worst superhero movie of 2011 and it’s so-so box office performance is a clear reminder that it doesn’t live up to the hype. I think Chris Hemsworth is a close second and James McAvoy was robbed of the award that should have been his. And if only Michael Fassbender (Magneto) is considered a hero in the movie, no doubt he should have won the award too, and boy that guy can speak fluent German. Though I’m not totally convinced of Chris Evans portrayal of the Sentinel of Liberty either because he played Johnny Storm (Human Torch) in the Fantastic Four movie. Ryan Reynolds’ douche portrayal of Hal Jordan is way out of sync from the original comic book character. It brings me back at a time when Jethro Tull won the “Best Heavy Metal” award over Metallica at the Grammy. I don’t hate Green Lantern, I love Hal Jordan and DC comics in general but they’ve totally lost it with Reynolds. I like him more when he played Deadpool from Wolverine: Origins. They could have taken inspiration from the success of the Dark Knight films and say “Damn, how did it raked millions?” and, the Christopher Reeves Superman movies of the early 80′s where Mr. Reeves made even a straight guy squeal because of his portrayal of a comely hero flying around in his underwear. If they’re willing to take another chance and do a Green Lantern sequel they should hire people who has a complete knowledge of the character and the mythos that made Green Lantern one of the most recognizable heroes of the DC universe. Rebooting won’t do them any good, they should only get a good script and roll with it just like what Christopher Nolan and David Goyer did with Batman. The CGI won’t be justified without a good story and the right actors. If only I could have my way, I would have gotten an African-American actor like Vin Diesel to play GL John Stewart on the sequel and let go of Ryan Reynolds. I know it’s a long shot but who knows?
Ryan Reynolds as GL Hal Jordan
“It has to be virtual rather than spandex. This is a suit from an alien planet. It’s not ‘The Dark Knight’ – I don’t put the suit on and my voice drops several octaves. The suit is powered specifically on [Hal's] will, his emotion, his creativity and his imagination. I love that everything Hal creates are images from his childhood. Or things fueled specifically from his own mind.” – Ryan Reynolds on Green Lantern.
Chris Evans as Captain America
“The fact is, no matter how long a list you could create of the negatives, the positives trump it. I make movies… I wear a shield, I get paid a lot of money to run around and play make believe. I’m not in the coal mines. I’m not flipping burgers. Life is great.” – Chris Evans on playing Captain America.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
“We were lucky in that they had actually built most of the sets. It’s easier having this big fantasy world around you than if there was just a green screen. It was like being a kid playing dress-ups. You do feel like you are this guy—especially with the costume. The first day I put it on, (Anthony) Hopkins looked at me and looked at both of us, and said, “No acting required here.” – Chris Hemsworth on playing Thor.
Some are hideous and some are just plain eyesores, but I would have to say that when it comes to graffiti, the Philippines boast one of the best street artist in the world. Quezon City in the Philippines, considered by some as the worst place to own a vehicle because of the notorious carjacking activity in the area, but it is also home for some of the best street artist you can find anywhere in the world. Check out this modern urban murals created by a group known only as Gerilya.
Philcoa Overpass, Quezon City, Philippines.
Philcoa Overpass, Quezon City, Philippines.
Katipunan-Aurora Crossing, Quezon City, Philippines.
Gerilya Crew Street Graffiti
Gerilya Crew Street Graffiti.
Gerilya Crew Street Graffiti.
I was lost
And You’ve found me,
I never searched for You
But You have shown Yourself to me.
I was far,
And You came to be with me,
I was bounded in chains
But now I am free.
The scent of the dead
Is a perfume that brightens the light of luna.
Thy moist rotting skin
Served to beautify thee more,
Wolves’ howl of mournful elegy
But I offered thee a joyful song.
Here I am, stretched on your grave
On concrete womb we would stay.
The Dark Knight Rises on Bill Finger
The one mystery the Dark Knight Detective can’t solve? The riddle of his own creation. While Bob Kane gets all the credit, Batman co-creator BILL FINGER died penniless.
BILL FINGER
Crack open the cover to any Batman comic and you’ll find one commonality: The phrase “Batman created by Bob Kane.” But many insiders will tell you that this simple statement of seeming fact is every bit as fictional as the Bat-tale it introduces. At the very least, they’ll tell you the statement is incomplete. Oh, they’ll admit, sometimes grudgingly, that Kane should be there. But they’ll also tell you that you wouldn’t read the book today-hell, you probably wouldn’t have heard of Batman-were it not for the contributions of another man.
Bill Finger.
Haven’t heard of him? You’re not alone. Finger’s cautionary tale is not well known, but it’s every bit as compelling as that of Batman himself.
“We’re all attracted to tragedy, and he’s a tragic figure,” says Ed Brubaker. “He did so much so well for so long! He was the most inventive guy on the book, worked on it for decades, and in the end, it got him nothing.”
Just what did Finger do? At the very least, he wrote Batman for over 20 years, introducing the character in Detective Comics #27, penning the first Robin story in Detective #38, and introducing the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Bat-Mite, and the very Batcave itself. At the most, he may have ensured that Batman existed at all.
The Bat-Man Costume
Bob Kane’s original Batman wore red tights with Zorro style-styled mask, and two stiff-looking wings mounted to the back of the costume. He wasn’t sure if his design would pass muster, so he called an old high school classmate for a friendly chat and a second opinion, a man he knew to be a creative sort. He called Bill Finger.
BOB KANE BATMAN DESIGN
“Bill said, ‘Why not make him look more like a bat and put a hood on him, and take the eyeballs out and just put slits for eyes to make him look more mysterious?” Batman’s domino mask changed into a full cowl. Finger suggested making the color scheme darker. ” Color it dark gray to make it look more ominous.” Kane recounts on his 1989 autobiography, Batman & Me.
BILL FINGER BATMAN CONCEPT
The Batman we all know today was born of Finger’s tinkering with Kane”s awkward design. DC loved Batman so Bob Kane knowing Bill Finger desperately wanted to be a writer, sub-contracted him to write Batman’s first story for Detective Comics #27. Kane also did something else: He got a contract.
BOB KANE
Bob Kane came from a well-to-do New York family with enough money to employ lawyers to nail down Kane’s interest in the character. Bill Finger came from a poor background in the Bronx, the writer was barely scraping by with low-paying jobs as a shoe salesman. Soon after the conception, Kane secured an ownership percentage in Batman in an ironclad legal guarantee that for now and forever, all Batman tales would start with the tag “Batman created by Bob Kane.” As for Bill, he was Kane’s employee, nothing more. Given the opportunity to write Batman’s first six stories he leap at the chance. It wasn’t until the seventh script that Finger got paid via DC. They may not have even known he existed at the time. Finger wanted too desperately to be a writer; he would do anything to remain in his position, and rise out of poverty.
Robin the Boy Wonder
One day, Kane mentioned to Finger that Batman needed a boy sidekick. Finger said he’d dream one up, and went for a sandwich. By the time he returned, Kane and inker Jerry Robinson had already nailed a name: Robin. Finger then wrote the first Robin tale.
Batman #38. Robin’s First Appearance.
The Joker
Accounts vary as to if Kane or Robinson came up with the notion of the psychotic villain, but it was definitely Finger who delivered the visual. “Bill came in with a photographed of Conrad Veidt, who played in a movie called ‘The Man Who Laughs.” Kane relays in Batman & Me. “Here’s a picture of the Joker character, ‘ Bill exclaimed. “Copy it and I’ll write the first Joker story.” Bill wrote the Jokers first two stories, in Batman #1 and #2. But every story, regardless of who wrote it, came out with the same byline” “By Bob Kane,” as per Kane’s contract.
CONRAD VEIDT
“In the early days, only the originators put their names on strips, regardless of whether they had ghost-writers or ghost-artists doing their features, ” Kane says in Batman & Me. “I never thought of giving [Finger] a byline, and he never asked for one.” Still as the originator and co-owner, Kane enjoyed healthy bonuses based on sales. Finger made his script rate of $12 a page, and still lived with his parents, helping his poor family make ends meet. “He was so overwhelmed that he was getting steady jobs that he never thought of anything else,” says Sheldon Moldoff, an artist who ghosted for Kane for 16 years. “He just wanted to be a writer. Bill was so happy he was working, he didn’t think about royalties, rights, any of that. He was very grateful to Bob.”
The love was not returned. “Bob Kane never was a nice guy,” Moldoff says flatly. “He had a tremendous ego. If I came up with an idea, he had no problem stealing it and claiming it as his own. Was Bob generous to Bill Finger? No. Was he nice with him? No. Bob wasn’t nice to anybody.”
The technical wonders of the Batcave, with it’s computers, submarine pens, and a Giant penny, sprang from the imagination of Bill Finger. “He was one of the guys who showed us how to do this work in this new medium,” Batman Editor Denny O’Neil, who credits Finger with mentoring him when O’Neil began his his career in 1965. ” Comics were really brand-new at the time – the umbilical cord hadn’t even been cut. And Bill really understood, almost instinctually, how to do it. He really had a handle on writing for comics. I’ve seen some of [Superman co-creator] Jerry Siegel’s original scripts, and it was these two guys, Siegel and Finger, who really first understood writing for comics. They taught the next generation.”
But that which made Finger great was also his downfall. Finger cared too much about his work, and refused to turn the script until it was perfect. For a poor man who never made much money…this was problem.
“Bill was the greatest comics writer of his time, and maybe since,” says Jerry Robinson. “But he was not a natural writer. Things didn’t flow from his pen. He really struggled every time.”
JERRY ROBINSON
Finger once delivered a first page of a script stapled to a bunch of blank pages to an editor, hurriedly grabbing his check and bolting the office before the editor could see that the work wasn’t finished. “The second Batman story he ever did for me [in the early '60's], I made him sign a little note that went roughly as follows: ‘I, William Finger, will not ask for the check for this story until I’ve completed it,” says long time DC Editor Julius Schwartz. “He had a habit of always needing money, and before he’d finished a story, he’d ask for a check. And he was invariably late.” Missing deadlines led to lack of income, which led to paralyzing fear, alcoholism, and more missed deadlines. By the mid-1950′s, Kane had moved to California and was comfortably out of comics, with a massive studio producing work in his name. Finger still struggled, with both deadlines and money.
All that’s left today of Finger is his place in history- a place that’s largely misplaced. His contributions are lost to the mist of time, and the fact that Bob Kane had the power of ironclad contract on his side.
“It’s impossible to tell exactly who created what anymore,” says Denny O’Neil. “The truth is, it’s 60 years since, and nobody really kept notes then. But I’ve spent a lot of time looking at Batman history. It was my main professional concern for 15 years. And near as I have been able to learn, Bill’s contributions were considerable.”
BATMAN EDITOR DENNY O’NEIL
“I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero,” Kane wrote in Batman & Me, which he dedicated, among others, to Finger. “I ran into Bill a year before he died in 1974. Bill was disheartened by the lack of major accomplishments in his career. He felt that he had not used his creative potential to it’s fullest and that success had passed him by.”
“I certainly think he deserved more that what he got, both in terms of credit and in terms of money,” O’Neil says. “There was no way for me to get him money, because of the legalities involved. It may not be fair, but it is the law.”
Official credit may be out of the question. “Short of adding his name to the credits, which I don’t think can be legally done, I don’t think there’s anything DC can do,” says comic writer and historian Mark Waid. “The Bob Kane estate is protected. Bob Kane’s selfishness continues from beyond the grave.”
DETECTIVE COMICS #27
Kane grew rich off of Batman and lived a comfortable life until he passed away in 1998. Finger died an unfulfilled man, never enjoying the late-life accolades or money that did eventually come to Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
“Siegel and Shuster are looked at as these guys who really got screwed until later in life. Bill Finger is like them, except he never got un-screwed,” says Ed Brubaker.
The last installment of the Christoper Nolan The Dark Knight Rises film will be shown summer 2012. We urged you to think about Bill Finger, just a little bit, next time you watch a Batman movie.