New Avengers, New Comics Legend
November 23, 2005 | 5 Comments
Over the last few months of reading Amazing Spider-Man, a continually running core plot point has been his membership in a newly reformed Avengers. Never having been a huge Avengers fan, I wasn’t initially very interested, but this interest has slowly increased.
I just completed reading New Avengers Volume 1: Breakout, which collects New Avengers #1-6. After completing this, I was hooked. The writing was just all out fantastic. I hadn’t been this excited about a comic since the Ultimate Spider-Man Collection. It was then it hit me.
Bendis wrote Ultimate Spider-Man, and he also wrote New Avengers. In fact it was him who dissolved the original Avengers. That series has been compiled in the aptly named Avengers Disassembled.
Bendis has also been involved in writing Daredevil, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four. In the meantime he created and wrote Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Secret War, Alias, Powers, and House of M. He’s also responsible for bringing Spider-Woman and Luke Cage back to life.
I’m looking forward to getting my hands on as many Bendis written stories as I can. As far as I’m concerned he’s a living legend like Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, or Steve Ditko. In 5-10 years all the comics based movies will be driven by the characters and worlds Bendis is creating and expanding right now.
Tags: alias, amazing spider-man, avengers, bendis, book, breakout, brian michael bendis, comic, comic book, comic books, comics, daredevil, fan, fantastic four, frank miller, house of m, jack kirby, marvel, marvel team-up, new avengers, powers, secret war, spider-man, spider-woman, spiderman, stan lee, steve ditko, ultimate, ultimate fantastic four, ultimate spider-man, ultimate x-men, ultimates, x-men
Harry Potter Day!
July 16, 2005 | 6 Comments
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released today! Very exciting. We bought the deluxe edition at midnight. I can’t wait to finish reading it…
If you have yet to read any of the books, shame on you. They don’t take long and are exceptional works of fiction. The movies are good, but as always do not hold a candle to the depth of story and character development that exists in the books.
More info:
JKRowling.Com
Mugglenet
CNN: A Magical Day for Harry Potter Fans
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire Movie Site (In theaters Nov 2005)
Amazon: Paperback, Books 1-5
Tags: book, books, goblet of fire, half blood prince, harry potter, jkrowling, muggle, potter, rowling, the goblet of fire
Last Chance to See, Revisited
July 7, 2005 | 2 Comments
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine wrote a book together called Last Chance to See which was an account of their traveling around the world in the mid-80s searching for greatly endangered species.
I’m a big Douglas Adams fan, I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. Soon after finishing that I fell into the Dirk Gently books (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul). When Adams died in 2001 I was more saddened by his death more than one would expect in reference to someone I didn’t know personally… I then tore through The Salmon of Doubt when it was released post-humously, finding myself in tears as the book ends suddenly about halfway through his final story. Anyway, Salmon turned me on to other works by Adams, Last Chance and the Liff books.
Adams’ humorous and engaging account drew me into thoughts of extinction and conservation leaving me more concerned about the state of our world’s wildlife than I ever intended. So, with this in mind I decided to research each of the near instinct animals they touch on in their adventures. Clearly a combined update was needed on the status of the animals they visited.
Aye-aye Lemur (Daubentonia Madagascariensis)
Status: Endangered - est 1000 to 10,000 (up from 12 in 1962)
Natural Habitat: Madagascar, island of Nosy Mangabe
Additional Resources:
ARKive
Wikipedia - Aye-aye
Animalinfo.org
Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodensis)
Status: Vulnerable - est. 6,000
Natural Habitat: Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia, including the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Gili Motang and Flores
Additional Resources:
American Museum of Natural History
Wikipedia - Komodo Dragon
San Diego Zoo
Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
Status: Critically Endangered - 380
Natural Habitat: Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa
Additional Resources:
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Informatics International - Dian Fossey Fund info
Classroom of the Future
Wikipedia - Mountain Gorilla
Northern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni)
Status: Critically Endangered - 15 (down from 32 in 2003)
Natural Habitat: Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo
Additional Resources:
International Rhino Foundation
UNESCO Word Heritage Centre
San Diego Zoo
Wikipedia - White Rhinoceros
BBC News - White rhino numbers are ‘halved’
Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus)
Status: Critically Endangered - 86 (up from 51 in 1995)
Natural Habitat: New Zealand
Additional Resources:
Kakapo Recovery Programme
The Fabulous Kakapo
New Zealand Department of Conservation
Wikipedia - Kakapo
Chinese River Dolphin or Baiji Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer)
Status: 7 in 1998 (down from 300 in 1986)
Natural Habitat: Yangtze River, China
Additional Resources:
China Internet Information Center - Recovery Effort
Whale Web
CETACEA
Wikipedia - Chinese River Dolphin
Rodrigues fruit-bats (Pteropus rodricensis)
Status: Endangered - est 1500-2000
Natural Habitat: island of Rodrigues (part of Mauritius) off the coast of Madagascar
Additional Resources:
Mauritian Wildlife Foundation
Philadelphia Zoo
Wild Ones Animal Index
Mauritius Island Online
There is more to talk about in reference to Mauritius(dodos, kestrels, pink pigeons, echo parakeets, etc) but I’ll these details until I can devote more space.
For a final note on Last Chance to See, there is a site devoted to the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of the account which is also worth checking out.
Tags: adams, adventures, africa, animal, animals, aye-aye, baiji dolphin, bats, book, books, china, conservation, dian fossey, dirk gently, dolphin, douglas adams, endangered, endangered species, exotic, extinction, fruit-bats, garamba national park, gorilla, habitat, indonesia, kakapo, komodo dragon, last chance to see, lemur, madagascar, mark carwardine, mauritius, mountain gorilla, nature, new zealand, republic of congo, rhino, rhinoceros, rodrigues, species, travel book, wildlife, zoo
Star Wars Episode III: 2-Way Review
June 30, 2005 | Leave a Comment
On opening night, as expected, I was in line for the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The next day I started reading the novelization by Matthew Stover. Upon completing the novel, I then went for a second showing. My hope was to be able to compare how the movie did standalone, and then how it does when adding in the character insights in the novel, hear is my assessment.
First, I really like the movie. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and did actually like the other two prequel films. Now that we’re past that, I’ll also admit the new trilogy is nowhere near as good as the original, but any additional stories in the Star Wars universe is welcome to me.
Stover adds a pile of thought and characterization to many of those we are interested in. Notable additions include: Dooku, Windu, and Padme. The other huge addition is in his handling of Obi-Wan. Ob-Wan is one of the greatest jedi, yet the film paints him as a bit of a blunderer always needing to be saved by Anakin. Stover makes it clear that Anakin is the most powerful jedi, so in comparison he pales a bit. However, he does fight (and win) two significant lightsaber battles in this story.
Upon watching the film a second time, I felt like many of the pieces fit together nicer than previously. I hadn’t actually noticed any problems on the first viewing, but in the second, innuendoes and intentions were suddenly much more clear.
If you are a Star Wars fan, and want to squeeze just a bit more depth and fullness from this story, I highly recommend the book, I was not at all disappointed.
Tags: book, books, dooku, episode 3, episode III, fan, movie, movies, obi-wan, revenge of the sith, sith, star wars, windu. padme