Getting the Word Out

May 15, 2008 – 8:14 am

So, I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about Secret Invasion #2 yet (because, let’s face it…. after #1 it was kind of a let down) because with summer coming up, we’ve hit promotion season at ye olde store.  So this means heading out to events like the Santa Barbara Social Game Night to talk about the kind of games we sell at our store and demo something a little more different than your average board game, putting up a booth at the nearby university to promote the store with leftover free comics and a fine selection of the kind of floppies the college kids can dig, just generally getting the word out which is one of the best things about this little medium of ours.

I like comics and I like telling people I like comics.  I like getting people to like comics with me.  it’s all part of the show, you know.  So why I may not be on the snap or judgments of late, know that I’m doing my part.  And reading comments.

Metro Flyer - Iron Man!

This is what I recommend to folks who’ve come out of the Iron man movie and just so happen to make it to the comic shop.  Believe it or not, we actually sold four Iron Man: Extremis TPs the weekend Iron man came out which I will consider a huge success.   Since it’s newer, the tech updated as only Warren Ellis can provide and the art something special, it’s probably the better TP to siggest because it serves as a gateway to the current Iron Man and can keep people hip.  The of course, two all new series: one is an ongoing and the other a mini for those people who ‘don’t want to get into comics per se’.

My job, ladies and gents.

By admin | Posted in Marvel, net, shop | Comments (0)

All You Need to Know - Mighty Avengers #13

May 7, 2008 – 1:37 pm

Ares is on the Mighty Avengers, right? So we get one Avenger for a few panels! YAY.

I’ll just come out and say it: this should have been a mini called ‘Nick Fury: Secret Files’ or something. I think it does a disservice to the Avengers to have him take over BOTH titles with brand-new characters, not to mention Nick Fury should have a little bit of fanfare in his recent return. He doesn’ have to hide from the reader, so why is he sneaking around the Avengers books?

Long story short, this issue is a gathering of ne’er-do-wells and nobodys no one’s heard of who all have some sort of ‘power’ because their mysterious parents are super-heroes. They stress that they aren’t mutants for the most part, but they all seem to have some pretty similar origins. We got six of them and a few named parents and this is Nick Fury’s all new, all secreter Avengers team.

So, who are they?  Well, apparently Ares is TOTALLY COOL with someone taking his son while he’s away (because that didn’t happen before and you think he’d have learned from the first time) since his son is one of our new heroes. Stated at 10 years of age, he’s Phobos the God of Fear now and no one (not even the GODS!) knew except for Nick Fury (who might I add appears in this issue in ‘disguise’ as a black man). The rest of them are a grab bag of ‘lost son of the Phantom Rider’, ‘lost son of Doctor Druid’, ‘not-so lost daughter of the Griffin’ and a really big guy bailed out of jail. These, plus Phobos plus the chick who can make earthquakes from that one issue of New Avengers I hated (oh, apparently she was in Secret War too, making it a very important prelude to this whole thing) are Nick Fury’s secret team to go ferret out some Skrulls.
I’d be a lot easier on this book if it wasn’t the Avengers. I think that title deserves some distinction and some Avengers from time to time. It makes sense wher Bendis is going with this since this looks like a fourth ‘Avengers’ team (counting Mighty, New and the Initiative guys) and they might actually be doing some Avenging, which is cool. Alex Maleev could draw paint dry and I’d still buy it (though Daisy Johnson looks a heck of a lot like Mila from Daredevil), so I can’t say it’s all that a waste. It’s just not doing it for me. It’s just not advertised well. And, in a bout of nitpicky-ness, it feels like we’re playing catch up again as the Avengers book are way behind the current overarching plotline.

But all you need to know is that Nick Fury has a secret team of young rookies to stop the Skrull invasion and it’s all part of his master plan.

By admin | Posted in Marvel, reviews | Comments (3)

Seeking May Flowers

May 6, 2008 – 8:21 am

If no one’s said it before, let me be the first: OH MY GOD WAS THIS WEEKEND OVER THE TOP.

We had Iron Man released to the masses, Free Comic Book Day celebrated (which tend to come with a sale, a signing or at least a balloon) and then, just to top things off, Metro hosted the Magic the Gathering Shadowmoor release tournament. It was a madhouse I tells ya, A MADHOUSE!

But we survived. My sign remarkably worked wonders, people’s enthusiasm was high and I can say with a head held high that Iron Man is the best superhero movie I have ever seen. Free Comic Book Day once again surprised us all at how incredibly popular it was, Nathan Kane is a complete and utter sweetheart and Bob Gale proudly showed me a few panels of a Thor at a malt shop (oh, Essential volumes, is there anything you can’t do?). The tournament rounded us out at a whopping 36 players, and on Monday, I slept.

Bringing us to Tuesday.

Today we go in and see if all this promotion, good feeling and spectacular success has any long term payoff. I’m not even close to thinking that everyone who picked up a healthy stack of free comics is going to come back and set up a pull subscription, but it’d be nice to see some people wander in and ask about All Star Superman. Maybe someone who’s seen the Iron Man movie ask us what’s the next best thing to it in print?

By admin | Posted in shop | Comments (1)

From the Trenches

May 3, 2008 – 11:33 am

I come to you live from the madness that is Free Comic Book Day (which I do have to say that if you’re not at, you should at least be watching Iron Man right now!), beleaguered and sore.  Of the 35 or so titles we had this morning, we’re down to 15 and slowly dropping.  By the end of the day, we’ll have the Big Ones (Hellboy, Marvel Adventures, All Star Superman, Jughead, The Disney One, and maybe Tiny Titans), but our free comic table will be skinny.

We had a line outside the door before we opened of at least twenty people as I rushed to make sure our hatches were battened down and the men were ship-shape.  It has been fast and furious.  People have come from miles away and hopefully all of them are leaving happy.  Being a smart little store, we’ve got a sale going on at the same time which is encouraging people to stay.  Our ‘Mature Readers’ books were preciously guarded and thankfully gone now nad our Free Autograph Signing with Nathan Kane from Bongo Comics and Bob Gale from EVERYTHING COOL is due up in a little under 30 minutes.

It’s a busy day, but productive.  We have no fear.  ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH, COMIC SHOP CLERKS!

By admin | Posted in shop | Comments (0)

All You Need to Know - New Avengers #40

May 2, 2008 – 8:04 pm

Ever just wanted to pick up a book with the people on the cover on the inside of the book?  I mean, you pick up a book called ‘New Avengers’ and sort expect to see… well, AVENGERS.

Not so this issue.

I will say this, Jim CHeung’s artwork is really great.  Every Skrull he draws has a unique personality and appearance that stays within the bounds of how we’ve seen our little green men in the past and some of the bigger space epic shots have a great layout and sense of scope.  Like the Mighty Avengers issue that came before it, the artwork can not be denied.

The story isn’t that bad either: the reason why the Skrull are still able to muster up this big invasion after the events of Annihilation are due in part to New Avengers: Illuminati #1, as the Skrulls obtained some genetic samples from the most powerful men in the Marvel Universe and reverse engineer their powers and genetics.  Okay, this gets them a big boost in the Super Skrull program that allows them to xerox any combo of powers that the Skrulls can find a genetic sample of, not to mention bypass all the previous forms of Skrull detection by essentially becoming human in mind and body.

The other part of the equation is some sort of prophecy war, which a very pretty young royal woman takes her followers before the Skrull King and pleads for him to listen to the ancient foretelling of a great wave that will totally kick their ass in an six-issue mini-series.  The King says ‘Bah!’, exiles her prettiness to some place far away so that she avoids Annihilation and comes back and better than ever now to finish the prophecy by conquering Earth.

Ehn.  Now, there’s a reason I have a problem with this.  It seems kind of silly that there’s a character who knew about the Annihilation wave that was conveniently dismissed and exiled and still lives and now totally kicks ass and has the biggest advantage right now and who wants to personally infiltrate the Marvel Universe and lead her people in this really… well, Mary-Sue like fashion.  I don’t see her flaws, I don’t see her viscious conquest, it’s all done out of this sense of destiny and … yeah.  It irks me.

And yes, she decides that the best form to infiltrate Earth in is MY PERSONAL HERO, Spider-Woman.

So maybe it’s my vicious reverse-Bendis Spider-Woman distaste.

All you need to know?  The Skrulls can’t lose.  But you know they will.

And Spider-Woman needs to be a secret counter-agent for the Kree and she may just Yahtzee.

By admin | Posted in Marvel, reviews | Comments (4)

I’ve Seen Iron Man

May 2, 2008 – 3:50 pm

Da-na, da-na-na, da-nanananana, da-na-na.

This afternoon, when I came into work, I created this sign out of a used back board:

I assure you, it\'s awesome.

I created this sign because I could pretty much call how my day was going to go:

Customer: Have you seen Iron Man yet?
Me: Yes!
Customer: Is… is it any good?

I’ve had to go through this with every single comic movie that’s hit the screen, throwing in Star Wars prequels to boot. That hesitant fear of a bad movie of four-color caliber causes customers to cower at the counter and now I’m just alliterating for the heck of it. But no, this is serious, as serious as I have had to answer the question before people even saw the sign.

This fear is not unfounded. We remember the Schumaker Batman flicks with guilt and remorse. The Hulk movie had me in denial for years until an intervention was staged to show me the truth, that the movie is darned well near unwatchable. So looking to others to see if it’s safe is a perfectly rational reaction, especially for Metro considering the store manager is a film studies major.

I also think we look to sources of authority to ensure that the film is true, people who know comics who can call a spade a spade, if you will. If the comic fans don’t like it, well then. Tear up your tickets! This morning on the radio the three disc jockies, self-admittedly out of the loop when it comes to the funnybooks, had to ask their regular movie reviewer if the ‘nerds’ would approve of how close Iron Man stuck to the source material. Even non-comic fans know our word is law on these kinds of things.

So I understand your reticence. I understand the fears and anxieties. But for the love of new super-computer Jarvis:

my freakishly long arms

Please stop asking me.

Conquer your fears. See the movie for yourself and ride the rollercoaster of comic movie acceptance.

For the record? The Iron Man movie just so happens to be THE best comic movie I have had the pleasure of seeing. Mind you, I’m saying this still riding the incredible high of seeing it for the first time, so my snap judgment is just that: WHEE! Tonight, I see it again (this time getting the full effect as I had to cut out before the end (AND YES I KNOW ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE CREDITS!) to go hand out flyers for Free Comic Book Day at Metro, so we’ll see what viewing #2 does to the ol’ brain pan.

Maybe I’ll be more objective. Maybe I’ll still want to declare it a modern masterpiece that thrills me to no end that Marvel has their own studios now. We shall see.

And so should you.

By admin | Posted in Marvel, movies, shop | Comments (6)

All You Need to Know - Mighty Avengers #12

April 29, 2008 – 7:35 pm

Mighty Avengers #12 promised in its solicitation all those months ago to let the reader in on the little secrets of Nick Fury. Where has he been? What has he been doing? And I do quote:

The Eisner-award-winning team of Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev (NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI, HALO: UPRISING) reunite to answer the question that has been on every comic fan’s mind for years…WHERE THE HELL HAS NICK FURY BEEN?? Rewinding the clock to Fury’s time in SECRET WAR, follow Fury as he puts together the pieces of his life and starts finding clues to a Secret Invasion that makes him TARGET NUMBER ONE. A major Skrull reveal happens in these pages!

Well, reading through this issue I hate to have to do this but … if you haven’t been reading anything of Bendis’s work in the past couple years since Secret War, you might want to rethinking having the Avengers on your pull for a little while (if these reviews haven’t made you drop an otherwise ‘meh’ book already). Thanks to being able to take a book into the back on a break every so often, I like to think of myself as well-read regarding the Marvel Universe and boy, this issue proves me wrong.

All you need to know is that Nick Fury went underground after Secret War because of his actions during the series. Contessa goes to see him, turns out to be a Skrull (THAT’S THE BIG REVEAL? You serious?) and so after he shoots her, Fury goes… uhm, even more underground and keeps tabs on SHIELD using all his awesomeness and Jessica Drew because she’s the superest super agent ever. Me, no I’m not bitter.

A lot of this is stuff we already knew, right? Who didn’t know Nick Fury was underground? We’ve been told for the past few months he knew of the Skrull threat to Earth, so him going around and checking on the Skrullometer of SHIELD isn’t all that new and/or exciting. Nick Fury beating his former base of operations at their own game should be rather thrilling, but there’s no danger of being caught and Maria Hill isn’t all that dangerous faced with the awesome might of Nick Fury. He goes to see Director Hill once she takes over his old job (as she sleeps in her underwear), gives her the ol’ narrow eyes and jumps away to safety. They ask her if he took anything while he was rooting about and then… we cut to Spider-Woman. It’s as if the book really wants to tell us something but doesn’t trust itself to be as exciting after the reveal.

And for Heaven’s sake! If Spider-Woman isn’t on EVERY side she’s a remarkably flat character. A lot of this is rehash and the details require your back issue collection if you’re curious about the timeline from ages ago until now. I’m sure it’s rewarding to go back and find out how this book overlaps with Secret War, the Avengers titles, Civil War and Spider-Woman: Origin but I really miss the little yellow footnotes. I know it’d disrupt the art (which would be a real crime), but even Wolverine: Origins when they started used to put notation in the back from all the issues they referenced.

Mind you, the art is spectacular (uncanny even!) and is nearly worth the price of admission right there. But as far as content, it’s on the light side.

What everyone is going to be talking about is the final page of Nick Fury and his big wall o’ poloroids. Some people are circled! Some people are not circled! The circles are different colors! WHO DO YOU CIRCLE?

Blue Circles: Spider-Man, Daredevil, Lockjaw, Stature and Namor
Red Circles: Wolverine, Sentry, Hulkling and Doctor Strange

You can infer about these circles until the cows come home but considering on how light this issue was on serious clues with discernible information, then I wouldn’t look back until one of these characters rears their Skrully heads. This book is going to enjoy being smarter than its readers for awhile. Settle in.

By admin | Posted in Marvel | Comments (1)

Beautiful and Terrible Denied

April 28, 2008 – 4:07 pm

from the CBR interview with Christos Gage:

The stars of “Reason in Madness,” Thunderbolts director Norman Osborn and team member Venom, are both mentally unhinged — hence the title– but they also share a common history as Spider-Man foes. “That history will come into play in our story,” Gage said. “Without mentioning any names, Venom is approached by some old partners in crime who make him the proverbial offer he can’t refuse–in exchange for betraying Norman. One way or another, you know this can’t end well. You’ll see Norman Osborn really cut loose–and we’ll illustrate quite clearly why he’s the man in charge.”

The man in charge… of being Venom’s new host?   Probably not.  But it’s fun to think about?

By admin | Posted in Marvel | Comments (1)

Big Pimpin’

April 27, 2008 – 3:58 pm

Before we talk about the latest Mighty Avengers, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell everyone reading (hi mom!) that METRO ENTERTAINMENT is hosting a special 7th annual FREE COMIC BOOK DAY this Saturday, May 3rd.

Now, anyone visiting this site would have to be living under a rock not to know about Free Comic Book Day but lemme tell you how we do it Metro Style:

Free Comic Book Day at Metro FREE AUTOGRAPH SIGNING!

That’s right! Mighty Metro Entertainment’s gonna have HELLA-BOOSTY BOB GALE live and in person at our humble location! WORD. He’ll be signing not only his Brand New run on Amazing Spider-Man, but I don’t think he’ll balk at personalizing your copies of his run on Daredevil (still on in trade those stingy Marvel execs!), the issues he did for Batman, maybe Ant-Man’s Big Christmas, that homey little movie blockbuster known as BACK TO THE FUTURE and THAT’S NOT ALL!  We’re also proud to have NATHAN KANE, a little someone you might know from Bongo’s fantastic line of Simpsons Comics!

“This sounds fantastic!,” says you (or so we here at Metro Entertainment hope). “But there’s no way I can make it to your store!” Never fear! You can at least get all three issues personally penned by Bob Gale at our on-line store!

All I know is that starting May 2nd? We are in for one wild ride, comic fans.  And that’s my Big Pimpin’.

By admin | Posted in Marvel | Comments (0)

Things that Wake Me Up in the Middle of the Night

April 23, 2008 – 12:28 am

Okay, so you know how in the last issue of Thunderbolts, the Swordsman and Venom go at it and in the very last page, there’s that big splash of the Swordsman’s sword going through the mid-section of Venom, only he’s pulled back the symbiote bits of him to show that the sword is actually disembowling (and probably electrocuting to some point) Max Gargan, the current host?

Deep breath, keep typing.

Get this:  what if that’s it for poor Gargan?  What if the symbiote is going to just let that guy die from the wound and go slink off somewhere else to find a new host?   It could happen; whatever the crazy telepath crew is doing in that book, the Venom symbiote tends to be rather demanding on its hosts and Gargan’s bitten off a lot more than he can chew with Venom.  No, really.  More than he can chew.

This would mean that the symbiote needs a new host.  Marvel’s been pretty coy, but there does seem to be big plans ahead for Venom and Spider-Man.

... oh crap

There’s something really frightening about this piece of teaser art.

Would they?  Could they?  DARE THEY?!?!

I’m going to go back to bed.  And leave the light on.

By admin | Posted in Marvel | Comments (3)