How 2 be Batman - 2 Great Batman Books

With the Dark Knight Rises coming to theathers this summer Insight Editions is bringing us 2 books that help us understand the history of the Bat and the Batmobile itself.

For the first time, the Dark Knight’s secrets are revealed in The Dark Knight Manual, which details all of Wayne’s cutting-edge collaborations with Lucius Fox at Wayne Enterprises. The Manual gives readers unprecedented access to Batman’s amazing arsenal featuring numerous documents and items including: designs and upgrades for the Batsuit, the specifications of the Utility Belt, blueprints for the Batcave, detailed dossiers on foes and allies, plans for the Dark Knight’s latest vehicles, and much, much more. All these, and a plethora of never-before-published materials, shine a light on how the mysterious Bruce Wayne operates as Gotham City’s greatest protector.

The Dark Knight Manual will be available at retailers nationwide in June 2012. 

Hardcover, $40.00, June 2012

112 pages, More than 35 removable insert items and dossiers

ISBN-13: 978-1-60887-104-9

Insight Editions

BATMOBILE: The Complete History is the story of the distinct, sophisticated, incomparable car. From its evolution in the pages of Detective Comics, to its unforgettable appearances on the big screen, this book explores each incarnation of the Batmobile with the detail such an extraordinary automobile warrants.

Author Mark Cotta Vaz uncovers insights and stories from creators and conceptualists that reveal the nuts and bolts of putting these dream machines together and explains the philosophies behind each design. With stunning gatefolds-including a large-scale panorama of the Batmobiles featured in film and television-and detailed specs, blueprints, and historical comparisons, BATMOBILE: The Complete History is an informational and visual delight for automotive and Batman fans alike.

Hardcover, $35.00, June 2012

148 pages, More than 100 full color photographs and illustrations

ISBN-13: 978-1-60887-104-9

Written by Mark Cotta Vaz, Foreword: Q&A with Paul Levitz & Nathan Crowley

Published by Insight Editions

by

Erick Castillo

Netflix Gems - Parking Wars

There are few shows that I can say they speak to me and they are a reality based show, Parking Wars speaks to me because of the 2 and a half years I worked for a San Diego based parking company. And every time I see someone arguing with a PPA officer over meter times, tickets, boots, and so on I can’t help but laugh because it’s the over the top and angry fights they try to intimidate the officers with.

Parking Wars has an entertainment value for the simple reason of the raw personalities that show up in the show, also the good hard working people of the PPA all try their best to help out people whenever possible. The show can start off slow with someone just trying to explain who they are and why they love their job and suddenly they will issue a ticket or boot a car and all hell will break lose when the owner comes running up.

The show is full of character and charm with the employees just doing their day to day duties, the more popular employees on the show are Garfield and Sherry they boot cars together and for the most part don’t get to many people trying to give them trouble and when they do they try their hardest to keep them calm. But then when the show started to also cover Detroit we were introduced to employees like PonyTail and the rest of Detroit’s finest and they take it to a whole new level, more and more of the confrontations in the show come from their section of the show. So it’s always interesting to see the way people try and talk their way out of whatever predicament they might find themselves in.

The show is broken into ticketing, booting, towing, and the PPA impound lot, the show is unpredictable because of the level of stress people are encountered in and how much money they may have to pay just to get their vehicles back from the impound. From the point of view of a former Parking Lot employee and a returns desk retail employee I can relate a lot to how they can be misstated and yelled at for just doing their jobs, but I find it satisfying to see that if the citizens go to far they will be arrested something that sadly was never the case for me at many of my jobs no matter how badly I was verbally of psychically abused by a customer, so it’s almost entertaining therapy for me. Because if there is one thing that is universally hated by people everywhere is paying for parking spots and having your car towed away, so this show just makes you feel good if you are not the kind of person who racks up enough tickets to get booted and towed.

The only downside to the show is that it almost seems like the majority of the people getting in trouble are from the black community and the aka ghetto, not I am not sure if this editing on behalf of the producers or it just happens to be the fact of the larger population in the two states, either way it can get somewhat tired to see the level of ignorance that is displayed by some of the people in the show, and last but not least toward the end of the fourth season episodes started to repeat themselves and attempted to be passed off as new ones, for example episodes 11 and 13 in season 4 are the same one. Overall I recommend the series simply for the entertainment value of raw personalities and the excuses that are always entertaining to see.

by

Erick Castillo

Saint Seiya Omega - First 5 Episodes Review

Saint Seiya is an anime that is revered world wide as one of the must see and must read series, both the manga and the animated series have story lines that may concur on many points but also take literal freedoms when needed.

The animated series was reborn in recent years with the long awaited Hades Saga, then an OVA Tenkai Chi, after during San Diego Comic Con to my own surprise it was announced that Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas was to air in Japan, and of course old school fans like myself rejoiced and lost our minds when we found out that  it would be based on the holy war that took place before the original series. Sadly this well produced and beautifully animated series was cancelled due to it’s poor reception in Japan, even though everyone else in the world fell in love with the series. Now in it’s place we have Saint Seiya Omega, or as I would like to rename it as Saint Seiya Harry Potter Pokemon Anime, and I can fully justify this title.

The series is set 25 years after the original story of Saint Seiya, at this point Seiya the saint of pegasus is now the new gold saint of Sagittarius, which is to no surprise of anyone who are fans of the series. Now the series revolves around Kouga the new saint of Pegasus, which to be honest we all suspect he is the son of Seiya and Saori, and again if you have watched the previous series then you know how much potential this character has as far as cosmos and fighting techniques he has.

Within the first 5 episodes of the series most of the premise is established and the main story elements are explained, with the exemption of what exactly happened to the armors since the last war and why the sudden need for elements from all saints as well.

The series took on a Sailor Moon esk animation style vs the more detailed look of Lost Canvas, also one of the reasons I can tease the series is that now there is a school for young bronze saints that reminds me of Hogwarts school of wizardry, also on top of that you have the elements that work much like Pokemon, Fire types are weak against Water types and so on.

In all honesty as a fan of the original series and the Lost Canvas I am having a hard time to fall in love with this new series for all the changes that have not been justified to the viewer, not only that but the enemies are referred to as Martians and they all seem to use Darkness as an element and Kouga uses Light, so it just seems like young Kouga will always have an advantage over main enemies in the series.

One of the other issues I cannot get passed is the armor now really looks like cloth, in fact through most of the series so far they only equip an arm of the armor for training purposes. So it seems like lazy animating since the parts of the episode that show more than 3 or 4 saints in one scene they will either be in matching school uniforms or in gym sweats with the one armlet equipped.

They do start to reference more and more about the previous Saints but with the little ammount of information given so far it makes it hard to understand what exactly happened that made the large crated armors into small jewels that they wear or why the sudden need to learn an element, much like Ichi the Serpent from the previous series is now stuck in the school for being the only Saint from the previous guard who has yet to discover his element and be able to graduate the school and continue on as a Bronze Saint.

The reason this anime can be referred to as a Harry Potter like story is because Kouga is the newest student who for some unknown reason had never even heard of the school and yet he was trained by Shyna of the Cobra a silver saint from the previous series and also the woman who was infatuated with either loving or killing Seiya, so now we as viewers get to learn about the school and it’s inner workings along side of Kouga. With friends like Ryuho the Dragon son of Shiryu the Dragon from the previous series he has a lot to learn about his cosmos and how the life of Saint is nothing more than to protect Athena.

The series does have it’s moments of excitement, in fact one of the best parts of the series are the fights and in fact that is where Saint Seiya has always shined, they are well animated and the banter between characters is also well written much like any other angsty teen anime. Overall the series still has some promise but it will take some serious twist and turns to make it appeal to old school fans, with the promise of further explanation of what happened to the previous saints and the future of the enemies they will face the series might still stand out as a must watch but that all still remains to be seen.

by

Erick Castillo

SmodFilm Review - Red State Movie Review

When moviegoers hear the name Kevin Smith films like Dogma, Clerks, Chasing Amy, and for a few of us even Jersey Girl come to mind, and all of these films have the comedy genre in common for the most part. So when Kevin Smith announced that he would be writing and producing a action-horror film critics and fans had some doubts about the outcome, personally I looked forward to the product of a mind like Smith’s when set into a more serious and gruesome genre.

The finished product is called Red State, the film sets itself in Middle America where a group known as Five Points Trinity Church set itself as the righteous messengers of God, much like Westboro Baptist Church they set out to protest during the funeral of Fallen Soldiers and anyone who is part of the gay community. 

The Five Points Trinity Church has isolated themselves in a compound holding daily mass and preaching about the sinful ways of the world and how God will bring the rapture upon us and cleanse the world, of course this makes the surrounding community very uncomfortable for obvious reasons. The Church has also been under investigation for arms smuggling and other such suspicious illegal activity but no real proof has been brought forth to be able to bring them down.

Three local teenagers set out in a American Pie teenage angst type adventure to try and lose their virginity, unfortunately for them this little adventure leads them in the middle of the Churches community. The story develops from here as the teens and local law enforcement are now in need of outside authority, this is where John Goodman comes into the story as ATF Agent Joshep Keenan who has been investigating the Church for the past few years.

Without going in further into the story that will ruin it for anyone who has not seen it, overall the story is very engaging and the action is dramatic, the performances by John Goodman and Michael Parks are just at their peak of excellence. The supporting cast offers just as much of an amazing job with some actors who you would normally not expect to see in such roles like Ralph Garman who is better known for his comedic roles in Family Guy and best known as the host of The Joe Schmo Show who also brings a steller performance onto the film.

As a whole the film is classified in the horror genre, and there are some gruesome killings and such the parts that make some people cringe, but what makes the film truly horror is that there are people like this out there and human nature can be the scariest thing. The film delivers well what it set out to do and I can honestly say that I look forward to more horror films from Kevin Smith or any other genre he may set out to do.

by

Erick Castillo

A Legend Returns - Saint Seiya Omega Episode 1 Review and News

Saint Seiya was the anime of choice for me when I was a kid, it was not the first I had watched but it was the one that made me love anime in general. So when I was hosting Anime Import Weekly on our podcast channel I had to make sure I covered with extreme detail. 

Then when the prequel series called Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas came out I was also very excited and pleased, the series was well produced and revived my love for the series. The Lost Canvas was animated because of the success of the original Manga saga for the Hades saga was animated and then a follow up film Saint Seiya Tenkai Hen Overture. 

When the last film was released it ended in a cliff hanger that was never really answered, so when Saint Seiya Omega was announced as a sequel to the series that takes place 25 years later you better believe that I started to jump for joy about all of it. 

As mentioned the story takes place 25 years after the Holly Wars, what is not clear is what happened after if Tenkai Hen Overture or if that movie never happened in continuity to the main story. Now in present day Seiya is but a legend among the young saints in training, Athena is still in power of the Sanctuary and peace on earth has come to an end, Mars has come to take the earth from Athena. Kouga is training with Shaina to become the new saint to wear the Pegasus cloth.

Without giving out any additional information about the first episode let’s go into initial feel for the series, sadly I cannot say that I enjoy the animation style compared to the original series let alone the fantastic work done with the Hades Saga, Tenkai Hen Overture, and the Lost Canvas as examples of how well the series can be done graphically.

Music wise I love the remake of the original intro music for the 80’s series and some of the music used in the episode did help make for some emotional driven story telling.

One of the initial gripes I have with the series is the way the cloths are being treated, there is no explanation as of yet and no idea if there will be one at all, but the cloths are no longer carried in their crates instead they are now worn as a crystal necklace that will activate the armor when needed.

Some of the basics of the series are still there for what we can tell from the first episode, the saints are still ranked by bronze, silver, and gold, Seiya now dawns the Golden Armor of Sagittarius, and as always Athena needs protecting from a greater evil. From the previous main saints only Pegasus and Dragon will be coming back as main characters but other side line saints like Wolf and Lion will becomes main stays this time around.

Overall the series shows some promise but I cannot help but feel that the series almost looks like a Sailor Moon/Saint Seiya fans dream come true with more effeminate looking characters and armors that looks like easy cosplay looking clothing, and a main villain that looks like a reject from the Negaverse. I hope that the series will take on more and more classic story styles like the previous series in recent years and maybe some actions scenes that show more detail in combat, the season started in April 1st and will continue on every Sunday for a few weeks until the season finally later this year.

by

Erick Castillo