Comic Review - Powerful in Pink (Marvel)

You'd think that when creative teams created these characters, the color Pink would be the last color one would pick right? Well, if you do, then you need to think again!

Here is a selection of Marvel characters (we will do the DC guys another day) that sport the color Pink (or in some cases Purple, which is a close enough cousin of dear ol' Pink.).

We start with one of Fantastic Four's major villains - the ruler of the Negative Zone - Annihilus

Another 2 from the Fantastic Four's rogues gallery - 2 members of the Frightful Four.

The Wizard - who fancies himself to be Reed's intellectual equal.

The Trapster (who used to be called Paste Pot Pete!)

Now we move on to the X-Men's foes. The first one is a Killer Robot from the future called Nimrod.

X-Men fans would no doubt recognize the Sentinel killer robots (who also made a brief appearance in the movie X-Men 3 - in the Danger Room sequence.) brought to life by Bolivar Trask.

Meanwhile, back to more of Fantastic Four's villains. A villainous version of the FF (in fact, they were trying to replicate the process by exposing themselves to cosmic rays and became the U-Foes!)

Their youngest member, Human Torch's counter-part - X-Ray

And who doesn't know the planet-eater Galactus (who also happen to have made an appearance in the Fantastic Four 2 movie, but as a death cloud from space...sigh)?

1 more FF villain - Diablo. As he dabbles in Alchemy (which is kind of like magic), his encounters with FF are always interesting as the FF are science-based heroes.

The Super Skrull - another FF old foe, who ended up being a hero during the Annihilation Wave when the forces of Annihilus (see above) from the Negative Zone threatened the Positive Universe.

More of FF's villains. Here, we have the Hate Monger!

We now move to Captain America's rogues. First, we have Diamondback. I'm unsure as I don't really read Capt America but I think at some point, she turned good.

1 of Cap's arch-nemeses (besides the Red Skull) is the Baron Zemo. The 1st Baron had died some time ago (because he too, like Cap, was from the WWII era) and the mantle has now been passed on to his son.

   
Now we move on to the heroes. First, we have Machine Man (aka X-51 or Aaron Stack). I really like this character and am sad that he is not as popular as he potentially could be.

Drax the Destroyer. He was created to destroy (Yup, hence his name...), get this, THANOS! I'm not sure if the creators were clear about how powerful Thanos is or how powerful they wanted Drax to be. Anyway, this is the original look. Marvel has changed his looks to suit the modern readers and had recently been part of the new Guardians of the Galaxy. 
We then have members of the Avengers.
First, we have the Scarlet Witch. As I had said earlier, she should be in the next Avengers movie!

Hawkeye. 'nuff said!

And then we have the Cajun scoundrel, X-Men's very own bad boy whom everyone loves - Remy Lebeau aka Gambit.

Lastly, back when Prof X first set-up the New Mutants as a junior group of X-Men in training, Emma Frost (who was still a villain then) also had her own group of mutants in training - the Hellions.

Movie Review - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1

Movie Title 

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1

Year

2012

Genre 

Animation, Crime, Comic Adaptation

Story

Based on the 1986 award-winning & ground-breaking 4-issue DC mini-series by Frank Miller's Batman - The Dark Knight. It was the series that brought the grim and gritty realism & darkness to the DC Universe, which used to be bright and cheery.

Set during a time when Batman had grown old (in his mid 50s?) & long retired from crime-fighting. Gotham had sunk deeper into lawlessness where the streets are under the control of a gang called the Mutants (nothing to do with the X-Men or mutation). 

Angered by what he sees, he comes out of retirement to set things right. In a pivotal confrontation with the Mutants & the Mutant Leader, he is seriously injured by the Mutant Leader in a hand-to-hand slug-fest and that's where Carrie Kelly, a feisty teenage girl who will eventually become the new Robin, makes her debut in Batman's life, by saving him.

As this is a 2-part animation, there's a lot more room for the movie-makers to play around with letting the sub-plots simmer, and they make full use of it. There are lots of other sub-plots going on such as Harvey Dent's complete fall from grace, the Joker and Superman (altho' he doesn't show up in Part 1, we know he will in Part 2 - plus, there are appearances by Superman's supporting characters like Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang.)

Artwork & Acting

The artwork's pretty good - reminiscent of the style employed by Miller in the books. Not the prettiest pictures but styled consistently and well-suited for the gritty feel of the movie. Personally, the art is not among my favourites in terms of style but admittedly it's still pretty good art.

The acting is very good as well. For me, that means there are no jarring or cartoony voices that usually creep up in animated movies. Here, the voices are so well done to the point that if you close your eyes, you would very well believe you were watching a live action movie. 

Overall

It's a good animated movie. However, I personally find it being just too dark & depressing a watch. I am not comparing this with Disney/PIXAR type of feel-good movies but some of the other Super-hero animations. Hence, despite it being a 2-parter with a cliff-hanger at the end of the 1st part, I don't find myself eagerly waiting for the 2nd part. 

Maybe this could be due to the fact that I had read the comic books back in the 80s and know how it ends.

There is a great Easter egg/ homage to the cover of the Frank Miller Series #1 cover in the 1st half of the movie which I thought was brilliant and that fans would really enjoy.

This is a good watch for anyone who is into superheroes or a grim & gritty crime story - not strictly just for comic fans only. Go and watch it and tell me what you think!

Rating: 6.5/10