X-Factor #150-262

 I love, love, love peter david's take on Marvel's wild n wooly Mutant team, and as a huge fan of Clermont and Byrne's "Muir Isle Team" of Moira MacTaggert, Alex Summers, Lorna Dane, and Jamie Madrox, I absolutely loved his X-factor reboot in issue 71 featuring  Jamie, Alex and Lorna, and when I heard he was coming back to X-Factor with a new series issue at #1 (which would later be retroactively re-numbered at 150 to continue the original run), I knew I just HAD to have it!
Peter David really cares for these characters and it is a joy to read and re-read every so oftem, so i took a month out to sit back and read 'em all over again!

Killing Zoe

 I recently re-watched the awesome Killing Zoe with Eric Stolz and Julie Delpy, a movie I haven’t seen since it first came out on video waaaaay back in the 90’s. GADS, I had forgotten how beautiful Julie Delpy was! I remember at the time I had also recently seen one of her French movies, "White", so I was already on a Julie Delpy high, Julie of course probably most famous nowadays for her “Before Sunrise” films with Ethan Hawke (which I also loved, BTW)…

Eric Stolz as Zed, Safecracker

Julie Delpy as Zoe

Killing Zoe stars Eric Stolz as Zed, a safecracker who goes to Paris to do a big bank Heist where he befriends a callgirl named Zoe (Delpy). They enjoy a time for awhile together, til Zed’s friend Eric, the mastermind behind the bank heist, arrives. 

Getting to Know Each Other

Kindred Spirits?

Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) arrives

Eric throws Zoe out of the room and prepares to take Zed out the night before the big heist. During a drug-fueled night on the town, he mentions to Zed he has AIDS, and this point brought back something I’d been wondering about the movie for some time now… 

(for those who haven’t seen the movie, here’s the obligatory )

* * * * * S P O I L E R  A L E R T * * * * * 

Zed has come to believe that this will be a smooth robbery where no one has to get hurt, and at first, things are going off without a hitch. But soon enough he and the other crime-mates are to realize that Eric has an ultra-sadistic side and when he kills a woman, they realize how unstable he is. Even more unfortunate is that we find Zoe has a day job working for this very bank, and she becomes part of the threatened hostages.

The Heist is On!

At Work Downstairs Cracking the Safe

  As Zed works on cracking the safe downstairs, he has no idea that upstairs, things are starting to unravel. People are getting killed, at some point, they realize the alarms have been tripped and the police have surrounded the bank. 

Things Getting Out of Control

Zoe Among the Hostages

It’s then that Zed comes up with the haul, having succeeded cracking the big vaults, where he sees that Zoe is one of the hostages and is about to be shot.  Zed leaps on the shooter, giving Zoe time to get away, but now Zed is at odds with the now out-of-control Eric for interfering. He attacks Zed with a blade and cuts his face, telling him their partnership is dissolved. 

Clashing with his Former Partner and Friend

So the movie reaches its’ big climax where the Police teams are swarming the bank and Eric is trying to kill Zoe and Zed. Eric has Zed in his sights and is about to execute him when he is taken out in spectacular fashion by a hail of bullets by the police, covering Zoe and Zed with a shower of blood. The Police storm in, and Zoe helps Zed out, telling clearing the way by telling the authorities he’s not one of the robbers.

A Bloody Conclusion 

  When the film ends, I’m blown away, thinking I’ve just watched a great freaking movie, til my friend, who’s been sitting off to the side goes, ‘Huh, so THAT'S why they call it Killing Zoe, I guess.” I’m like “What do you mean? “And he says, “Well, Zoe and Zed are gonna die since the guy had AIDS and his blood got into their wounds.” HUH! hat hadn't crossed my mind at ALL!
At first, I’m thinking like he must be the only guy who could come up with that bummer of a meaning for the ending...Was this the message the movie intended? That both Zoe and Zed were “doomed”? Forget it, I’m gonna go with MY interpretation of the ending, with the guy and girl escaping to live another day!

Atomic Robo Vol.One-Vol.Seven

 Hahaha, where else are you gonna get a Post-World War II atomic powered secret agent battling the likes of an intelligetn Evil Scientist Dinoasur,a Time-Travelling Oobleck and a dastardly Dr. Thomas Edison and cool partners like a totally kick-butt Carl Sagan? Yeah, this comic is as WACKY and fun as it sounds!

Next Wave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

An absolutely BRILLIANT series satirizing every cliche in superhero comics and poking fun at some of Marvel's sillier characters from Machine Man, Modok, Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy and all of the zany Psychedelic Steranko-influenced hijinks of the late 60's Spy movies, NEXTWAVE concerns a bunch of C-List Superheroes banded together to go against their own evil organization when they find they're trying to "take over the world", fighting against impossible odds even while fighting amongst each other and their own self-loathing and short-comings!! A True MASTERPIECE!

Desolation Jones: Made In England

I saw a copy of this on sale for a mere 3 bucks and thought it couldn't hurt to grab it, and BOY was I blown away by this series! Great art, cool characters and an intriguing story to boot! Too bad they never went any further with this title than these issues, it might have become something even grander!

Afterlife With Archie

Greg recommended this one for me but I have to say as an Archie fan how much I DIDN'T like it. These characters had nothing to do with the beloved Archie characters outside of their names. Very SJW-ish!!!!

Amazing Spider-Man #130-200

Daredevil:The Man Without Fear #16-232

John Byrne's Next Men #0-44

John Byrne's next men sure had its ups an downs but I read it religiously from its initial 30+0 issues with Dark Horse and through its new IDW series in 2010 and concluding series Next-Men: Aftermath (retroactively numbered as 31-44), 

While it didn't end on a very strong note (quite frankly, more of a whimper) it still is a series with characters I really, really love and care about and I will always take Next Men out and read again from time to time.

Favorite Halloween Stories: "Danny's Luck"

One day years and years ago, I was visiting an old book fair to see if I could find any childhood books that I grew up with. This was back before ebay and online bidding, so it was purely by chance that you would come upon something you wanted at the used bookstores or swap meets. The Book fairs were a good (and cheap) way to find some Lost childhood stories!

 Sifting through the bins, I was immediately taken by an old childrens’ Halloween Book  called “Danny’s Luck” by Lavinia R. Davis and illustrated by Hildegard Woodward. The cover had an very antique looking feel to it, and I quickly stepped out of the crowded  shelves and stood aside to peruse this new find! 

I was completely blown away by how much the illustrations perfectly captured the innocent Halloweens of childhood, or rather, the classic autumn Halloweens promised to all kids dremaingof their first ventures out: crisp, autumn oranges and yellows, rustic  tress with bare branches and the smell of Pumpkin Pie waiting for you upon your return home! 

 Ironically enough, Danny’s luck has actually very little to do with Halloween itself as the story concerns Danny and his upcoming birthday, which just happens to fall in October. If it had fallen in December, Danny’s Luck could very well have been a Christmas story! 

No matter, October it was, and thus was born an amazing Halloween story, and it is lucky too, for there are too few of them out there. To me and the kids of my generation, naturally the best Halloween stories are the ones that were read to us growing up- these would be the ones published between 1950 to 1970, and to have found a book that time that I’d heretofore never heard of from was a treasure indeed!

The Invincible Iron Man #1-150

An Ode To A Firefly

Joss Whedon's Firefly

 I was pretty huge fan of X-FILES back in the day, but the wave of similar styled shows that came in its wake (with shows like Millenium, Dark Angel and such)  overwhelmed me so much that by the time Joss Whedon’s new series came around, I wasn’t much interested in checking it out. “Enough sci-fi for now!” was my motto, and thus his cult favorite series  Firefly remained in the unwatched section of my life, even as the name Joss Whedon grew to huge and respected dimensions!

Nathan Fillion  as Mal and Gina Torres as Zoe

   So I’m hanging out with my friend Gerg, a guy who has turned me onto quite a few really cool things (most recently I can say that this was the guy who turned me onto the Rocket Raccoon era Guardians of the Galaxy) and we’re talking about the new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie, and Joss Whedon’s direction in general. At some point, Gerg mentions Firefly, a series he absolutely LOVES, and is surprised when I say that I’d never seen the series. 
   “Wow, Now I know what I’m gonna get you for Christmas!” he exclaimed, before I said “Hold on, to have me sit down and watch a whole season of a show that YOU love but I have no desire to see is more like a gift to YOU than to me!” This didn’t dissuade him because he immediately countered with,  “Then please watch it as a present to ME!” D’oh! ‘Dude”, I said, “I really don’t have time to watch a whole show.” But he just kept humming, “We’ll See, heh heh”… 

 Fast forward two or three months later, and I’m at Costco where I see that among the TV series they’ve got on DVD, they happened to have the entire Firefly series in one set for an astounding $7.99. $7.99!! That was cheaper than a used movie! Since I had no plans that weekend, I figured I could pick up the DVD and watch a few episodes to see what all the hub-bub was about, and even if I didn’t like it, at least I could appease my friend Gerg!

  So I began watching the show, and at first, it seemed very much like your typical science fiction television show with your quirky characters riding around in a ship solving the “problem” of the week… I’d say it sort of reminded me of the old Star Trek Next Generation or Battlestar Galactica series in a way. 

Nathan Fillion and Gina Torres

Ron Glass

Sam Maher, Adam Baldwin and Jewel Staite

Sam Maher and Summer Glau as the Tam Siblings

 The Pilot episode was okay, though nothing extraordinary for me. As I continued to watch the show, however, I began to get to know the characters better, and as I did, began to like them more, and in turn began to enjoy their interaction with each other. Each shipmate was so different that each clash of opinions between each other made for delightful dialog!

Captain Reynolds talks to Engineer Kaylee

Fillion, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk and Gina Torres

   In fact,I began liking the characters so much that it it got to the point where the drama going on between the shipmates was more interesting than any of the actual stories going on! I’ve always been a sucker for a pretty face, and so I guess the first character I started liking was Kaylee, as adorably played by Jewel Staite. 

Jewel Staite as Kaylee

Her playful pixie attitude caught my attention early on, then when I saw her all dolled up for the fancy dress ball in episode 4’s “Shindig”, I felt the tugging of my heart going out to her- SHE WAS SUCH A CUTIE!

Adorable!

Pixie Mechanic Kaylee

You would have thought I’d have liked Nathan Fillion’s character of Ship Captain Mal Reynolds from the get go, but for the first few episodes, I felt he spent WAY to much time being talked down by his shipmates and being second guessed and chided for his moral choices. Strangely enough I really began liking him only after I fell in love with my second favorite member, the lusciously sultry Inara Serra, played by the equally exotic Morena Baccarin.

Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra

 Out of all the shipmates aboard the Serenity, it’s always been the relationship between Fillion’s rude, gruff Captain Reynolds and Bacarrin’s perfect, classy and elegant Inara that has me glued to my screen. He uses foul language to her and describes her Companion profession as “being a whore”, but deep down you know how protective he is of her, and as time went on, you began to see that she deeply cared for him, too! 

Always at Odds: Malcolm and Inara

The Alluring MIss Serra

This was never more apparent than in the episode “Our Mrs. Reynolds”, the first episode that made me feel that perhaps Firefly WAS something special after all. In this episode, a stowaway on the ship purporting to be Reynolds’ new wife Saffron (played by the delectable Christina Hendricks, Oh My) uses her deceptions and charms to undermine the crew and take over the ship. 

Christina Hendricks as Saffron

MAN, was Inara awesome in this one!  As Saffron sneaks around plotting, Inara is the one who keeps her head and gets down tot he heart of the matter. And when the Captain is taken out by the enemy, for the first time, you really see the affection she has for him- and then in true form, once Mac is saved he playfully insults her, keeping their relationship right there on the edge!

Inara letting her true feelings show for the fallen Mal

The best frenemies one could ever have!

So after that  I began watching the show in a new, more appreciative light, and that set me up for one of the greatest chapters EVER, the incredible “Out Of Gas” episode. Written by co-executive produce Tim Minear, this episode begins at the end: Captain Reynolds is crawling on the ground of the Serenity in a delirious near-death state, and as he struggles to make his way across the dock, the scene changes, and we are seeing a flashback of the day that Reynolds and his second –in-command Zoe (Gina Torres) first acquired the ship. The episode then switches scene again- this time not to the present time where Reynolds is dying, but the beginning of that fateful day. 

The awesome "Out Of Gas" Episode: A grim present...

...and flashbacks to the crew's wide-eyed beginning days

So as the show progresses, we are seeing two flashbacks playing out- the events that led up to the dying Reynolds intertwined with the origins of how each member came to be a member of the Serenity Crew. Rest assured, by the end, all ends are neatly wrapped up and the good Captain is saved to live another day. but HOLY CRAP, was I BLOWN AWAY!  This was SO freaking GOOD, I couldn’t believe they had the patience to save this episode til mid-season! That night talking to my friend Car, I said, “By the way, regarding “Firefly”…Man, I’m a fan, now. NOW I GET IT!”
  I just finished watching episode 10, “War Stories” and besides being treated to the first real guns-a-blazing shootout of the series, have now come to love Zoe and Ship Pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk) as well- it seems the characters are growing more and more, and I’m loving them more and more!!! And with the new development of River Tam’s mysterious new powers coming to light at the end of the show, things gonna get a LOT MORE exciting in the next few episodes!

Zoe and Wash

Zoe kicking butt

A drastic change in River...

...Which worries Kaylee a bit!

With only 14 episodes in the series, I know the end is coming soon, but I’ve ALREADY ran to the used bookstore and picked me up a copy of the Firefly follow-up movie SERENITY because I intend to watch this one all the way to the end full-throttle! Very excited to see what happens NEXT!