Stan Lee makes a "BOOM!" on the comic book industry.

I remember reading on the web earlier in the year that "Stan is back!", I began to wonder what the viral campaign was all about and I figured that he was going to be doing something within comics but I wasn't sure as to what he had planned, that was until I logged onto BOOM Studio's website a month back and I saw a video on the homepage of Stan Lee discussing his new superheroes. Immediately I was interested in what I was seeing and I finally got what the whole "Stan is back!" ad campaign was all about, he is indeed back and he's bringing a new stable of heroes and villains along for the ride. The basic story here is that Stan Lee is overseeing the creative process a new universe of characters that is launching through BOOM Studios starting in October of 2010, he's not exactly writing the books but he is going to be the final say when it comes to scripts and art, much like Alex Ross' venture with the Project Superpowers line of books through Dynamite Entertainment. BOOM Studios has made a huge dent into the comic book market over the past couple of years with a children's line of comics based around Jim Henson's Muppet franchise and Disney properties and Mark Waid (CEO) has made the news with his fantastic writing on a title called "Irredeemable" which is an industry award winner and on shelves monthly, this venture into superhero comics and a partnership with Stan Lee can only strengthen their market share and maybe even push them in the direction of obtaining the coveted #3 position down the road behind powerhouse publishers Marvel and DC.

The line is going to start out with three titles and both Stan Lee and Mark Waid have teased about more coming down the road, the first three titles look like they are going to be really good and appear to have some originality to them, below I will share some pictures as well as give a quick plot synopsis of each character.



The first title to launch from this new line of comics is a book called "Soldier Zero", it's a story about a wheelchair bound war veteran who comes into contact with an alien weapon that fuses itself to him and gives the man a wide array of powers. From here on out he's hunted by a variety monsters, aliens, people and entities from both his world as well as other mysterious worlds, he then takes an oath to protect Earth from these threats and to use his powers for the better of mankind. The character design for Soldier Zero is kind of cool, I like the alien-like hands and I love the story about being fused with a war veteran, I'm going to be keeping up with this book and I think it could find success for BOOM and Stan Lee.



"The Traveler" is a book about a hero who can travel through time, the problem is that he does not know how he received these powers and he has no idea of his own origin so he goes on a quest to get some answers and to fend off any enemies that stand in his way. This book is the most interesting of the three launch titles and I really love the character design for the books hero, I think this could turn out to be a sleeper hit for BOOM and I wouldn't be surprised if this title becomes the most popular of the initial three books released.



The story behind this book is that the main character is a prince from an alien empire and he is the key to the survival of the entire universe, but of course being of such power draws out some of the baddest villains of all and he has to cope with that as he learns to use his powers to defend the universe. Of all three of the titles this book is the one I'm least looking forward to (but still very excited) and of all three of the core characters I found that Starborn's look is not on par with Soldier Zero and The Traveler, but he still looks cool enough and I'm sure the book will be perfectly fine.

I think that with heavy hitters like Mark Waid and Stan Lee behind this project and the fact that BOOM as a publisher has turned a lot of heads already that this line of comics is built for success, but then again I have seen many strong publishers fall under the weight of their own ego in the past. One thing is for sure, it sure will be interesting to follow BOOM and their superhero venture from start 'till...well, I'll just say "until", I don't want to jinx this new venture before it even gets off the ground yet, lol. To close things out I just want to urge those who may be on the fence to give these new books a try, let's expand our reading material and check out something that isn't published by Marvel or DC for a change, there is a whole new world of comic books being published and this is a big part of the future, I can feel it in my heart. Whether Stan Lee or BOOM Studios crack a home run or hit a dribbler to first base, I know that I for one will be there on the morning that the first title comes out and I will be as excited as I've ever been to purchase a new comic book.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

Manga4life's Berserk (anime) review!

Hello there Thought Corner readers, this is Mang4life checking in and today I figured it would be fun to write a review of a very fun and interesting anime series called “Berserk”. Berserk is a story of devotion, leadership, war, death and love, this series draws out many different emotions while watching it and you will most likely range from being thrilled to feeling sad while the tale of a man and his sword unfolds before your very eyes. Things start off with a traveler who goes by the name of “Guts”, while minding his business the man is attacked by a member of a group who call themselves “Band of the Hawk” and is forced into battle, after easily winning the fight Guts is then challenged by the groups leader (Griffith) under the rules of if he was to lose the fight that he would have to join the group and serve as a member. Guts loses the fight and joins Griffith in his conquest to defeat as many armies as possible, soon after he joins the group a series of events leads to Griffith being knighted by the kingdom and eventually captured as a hostage, meanwhile while this is happening Guts finds himself falling in love with Casca, a member of the Hawks who is hopelessly devoted to Griffith and one day wishes to take her place by his side. Eventually Guts and Casca would become the leaders of the Band of the Hawk and set off on a mission to find and free their fearless leader, but when they finally are able to get the job done they discover that things are worse than they thought and then all hell breaks loose, literally. The story was really good and the relationships with the characters really stood out as being strong and well written, but the high point of the series would definitely go to the action sequences, the action was intense and very hard hitting which led to inspirational fight scenes early on and toward the middle-end of the series.

My only real complaint with the story is that toward the end of the series things started to get weird, especially the final two episodes where all these weird monsters began trying to capture and eat everyone in the Band of the Hawk, I didn’t see why it had to turn all demonic like that and why they couldn’t have come up with a better scenario to end the series, but in the end I enjoyed what I saw and other than a couple of random tidbits (I’ll discuss them later) I was really satisfied with the series. One of the best parts of this series was the progression of Guts and Casca’s love affair, you could see it coming a mile away but it took a while for everything to come to a boil, there were little instances where you saw a possible spark and then nothing would happen until later in the series when they finally lay it all out on the table to each other, it was well written and really enjoyable to watch progress and it took your mind off of the fact that Berserk in an action anime.



The animation in Berserk was really good for it's time when it was released in the mid-90s but when you watch the series today you can't help but to feel that it comes off as a little bit dated, but it doesn't distract you from enjoying the anime it just makes it feel like your taking in a piece of history, after completing the series I felt the animation was overall pretty good and worked well with the style of story they were trying to tell. The music on the otherhand was nothing special, nor was the english dubbed voices or the sound effects used, they all came across as low budget and it was kind of annoying at times because the voiceover came across as cheesy and the music didn't really drag you into the scene as much as other anime programs out there. It wasn't like I would avoid the series because of the weak audio, but it definitely was not one of the high points of Berserk and I wouldn't try to sell someone on the series based on it's music or dubbing. I may try to rewatch this series in it's native Japanese audio and see what I think, I've been told by many people that Berserk was far better in Japanese than it was in English so It's worth giving it a shot, I just hate subtitles and I find that it distracts me from taking in the full experience of battle scenes and scenes that are emotional between characters. Despite the flaws that this series has I did really enjoy it and I would reccomend it to anyone who is looking for an anime that has a lot of action, a great story and a nice little love triangle, check it out for yourselves and let me know what you think!

Art & Animation - 7.5/10
Music & Sound Effects - 5.0/10
Story & Writing - 8.0/10
Fun - 8.0/10
Overall - 7.75/10


As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***