Happy Halloween! The Spectre Review

---SPOILER WARNING---

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween. Like last year I decided to review something both Comic Book and Horror related. However unlike last year I decided to review something much more horror. Today were looking at the Spectre short that was released with Justice League Crisis on Two Earths. The Spectre is a very interesting character, first appearing More Fun Comics #52. The Spectre is a Supernatural hero who punishes evil with his own brand of poetic justice. So without further delay let's take a look at The Spectre.

The short opens with a movie director named Foster Brenner being killed. Jim Corrigan, a detective, get's on the case due to him having a relationship with Brenner's Daughter. Corrigan asks Brenner's Butler if he had any enemy's and the Butler explains there were many Collaborators that were left out of the development of his newest movies that might hold a grudge. Corrigan asks for a list of names.

That night the Spectre visits one of the Special effects men, and blames him for Brenner's death before using his powers to make several animatronic movie monsters come to life and kill him. Meanwhile the Police Captain tells Corrigan that he's not on the case, but should probably look into the death of the suspects. Later we see a man fleeing the country with a suitcase full of money. The Spectre makes his car crash, and the man fly's threw the windshield of the car. The car then repairs itself, and chases after the man until it crushes him.

We then cut to Brenner's Daughter who is confronted by Corrigan who realized it was an inside job, and the two other guys were paid by her to kill her father. She try's to shoot him but the bullets pass threw him, and he transforms revealing that he was the Spectre all along. She try's to get away but the Spectre surrounds her in a tornado of bills from the suitcase as they get faster and start to shred her to death. The police arrive, and Corrigan walks pass them since they can't see him since he was a ghost all along. The short ends with him saying the he sometimes doesn't like what he does but it's his job to bring evil to justice.

This is really good. The animation is great and it mix's 70's movie with Classic Horror. The voice acting is great especially Gary Cole as the Spectre. The story is good and very well paced. It makes me wish there was a full length Spectre movie instead of the Superman and Batman movies we get yearly. Overall it's a great short, and I highly recommend it. So go watch your favorite scary movie, and have a Happy Halloween!

Rating: 5/5

Swamp Thing #56 Review

---SPOILER WARNING--- 

The countdown to Halloween continues, were so close but I still have one more comic to review before Halloween passes. However instead of reviewing another comic about Super Hero's and Zombies I decided to review something a bit more Sophisticated. Today were going to take a look at Swamp Thing.

The comic's story is about Swamp Thing being stranded on an alien planet after being separated from the green. He is alone, and in an attempt to cure his boredom he creates a clone of himself which he play's chess with. They stalemate five times and he allows it to kill itself. He then try's to create a clone of his deceased wife Abby out of the vegetation of the planet. 

He try's to trick himself into thinking that she is the real Abby, going so far to even recreate the town there from to further the illusion. He starts to fall for the it, however when they go to a restaurant they run into John Constantine. The Swamp Thing is surprised because he didn't create him, but it's revealed that he was created by the part of Swamp Thing that knows this is an illusion. So it created Constantine who taunts Swamp Thing for trying to pretend it was real, and for not trying to find a way back to earth.

Swamp Thing and Abby leave the restaurant, but it starts to rain distorting some of the buildings. With that the illusion is broken, and in his madness Swamp Thing starts to destroy the fake city. His madness fades, and the comic ends with him deciding to go to another world.

This comic is really good. It has really good characterization, and it does a really good job at displaying Swamp Thing's decent to madness. The art is fantastic, and the constant blue really makes this feel like a alien world. Overall it's a good read, and although it's more psychological then horror I recommend you read this around Halloween.

Rating: 4/5

Comic Panel of the Week: Dream Shenanigans

Marvel Zombies: Halloween One-Shot Review

---SPOILER WARNING---

Today were going to take a look at more superhero zombies, but this time there from the company across the street. Marvel Zombies is a series that was started in the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four when they teased a crossover between the Ultimate and main Marvel Universes. The story spawned a sequel and then it's own solo-series that just won't die. Sorry for the pun. Today were going to take a look at the latest adventure into the Zombie universe in Marvel Zombies: Halloween.

The comic is about a woman and her son trying to survive the zombie outbreak. The son wants to know what Halloween is, and she show's him what it is. He dresses up as Wolverine, and she plan's to go out and try to find some candy. She tells him to stay at the house while she's gone but he leaves after his cat runs away.

He try's going trick or treating, and runs into an old man that is mysteriously uncaring of the situation. He thinks he see's his cat but it turn's out to be a squirrel being controlled by a Zombie Squirrel Girl. He runs into other Zombie Superheroes who are about to eat him, but he is saved by his mom. The zombies chase them threw an abandoned school, and they hide. The zombies run into the old man from before who set's them on fire revealing himself to be Mephisto.

Mephisto goes and talks to the mother revealing her to be Kitty Pryde. He tells them that he helped them in order for the son to one day make a deal with him. He leaves and the two of them go back to there home. Kitty tells her son that she wont let Mephisto take him, and the comic ends with her telling him that she found his cat on the way back.

I actually liked this comic much more then I though I would. It has a heart that most of the other Marvel Zombies stuff doesn't have. It has a good story, and I didn't see the twist coming. It has good characters, and it's an overall enjoyable read. Especially for a horror comic. I definitely recommend this.

Rating: 4/5

Comic Panel of the Week: A Clown in the Dark

Blackest Night: Starman #81 Review

---SPOILER WARNING---

It's that time of year again, were the leaves start falling out of the trees, the ghouls and ghost come out to frighten us, and I get increasingly annoyed that retailers start putting up Christmas stuff before Halloween is even over. It's a fun time, and to start I will review a tie-in to the DC Event Blackest Night. For those of you who don't know Blackest Night is a event in which the Personification of Death uses Black Rings to resurrect dead superheroes in order to destroy all life in the universe. So it's essentially DC Zombies.

The comic opens with a recap of the Death of David Knight the previous Starman, as a Black Lantern Ring resurrects him. We cut to two security guards in a museum, they are killed by the Black Lantern Starman, and it transforms one of Starman's weapons into an axe shaped object. We then cut to Shade, an ex-villian turned anti-hero. He talks with his girlfriend Hope, when she notices the sky has turned Black. We cut back to the Black Lantern who is killing a bunch of people in the city. The police try to stop him but there weapons don't affect him.

The Black Lantern tries to eat Hope's Father's heart but he is interrupted by Shade and Hope. The Black Lantern insults them trying invoke an emotion response but it doesn't affect Shade and they fight which ends with Shade having his heart ripped out. However since Shade is immortal it doesn't kill him, Shade takes the opportunity, and imprisons the Black Lantern in the Shadow Void. The comic ends with Hope wondering if what the Black Lantern said was true, but Shade assures her that they have the time to sort everything out.

This is one of the best tie-ins to Blackest Night. It has a good story, and character development. It also gives enough backstory in case you don't really know the characters. The art is great, and really fits the tone of this book. Overall it's a great comic, and it worth reading this Halloween.

Rating: 4/5

"Arrow" First Thoughts

---SPOILER WARNING---

So before I start uploading some Halloween stuff were going to take a look at the new super hero show Arrow. I was half looking forward to this, and half dreading this. It looked okay from the trailers, but knowing the track record of the CW's shows I didn't have much hope. However I think I was surprised by the outcome.

To start I'll say what I liked. I actually liked Stephen Amell, I think he does a good job as Green Arrow. He's not as good as Justin Hartley or even James Arnold Taylor but he does a good job. I think the action scenes are good even though I could use some more of them. I also liked the comic references but that's also a problem.

The problems with the references is they don't really make sense. The main love interest is named Dinah Lance who is Black Canary in the comics. They do this all over the place, his best friend is named Merlyn, and his sister's nickname is Speedy and she does drugs. Referencing the comics while changing them completely isn't really a good way to go. This is why a lot of comic book fans hated Smallville. Hell that's the reason everyone hates Dragonball Evolution.

The one reference I think really worked was that Deathstroke's Mask was on the island they found Oliver on. Being a huge Titans fan I'm really wondering what there going to do with him, but I do have to wonder how it got on the island, and I hope this isn't just another pointless reference. Another problem is the way Oliver kills randomly. Despite my whole thing about superheroes shouldn't kill, It's not the fact that he kills that bother's me. It's the fact he kills some random goons that kidnapped him but didn't kill the man he wants revenge on. Not sure what that's about. Overall it's not bad so far, but I'm really close to not liking it.

Rating: 3/5

Comic Panel of the Week: Curse of the Mutants

Not really Halloween themed but I'm going to count it since there about to fight Vampires.

"Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" First Thoughts

So yeah, I haven't updated in two weeks. Once again my job is taking up a lot of my free time, and it's hard to find the time to do the weekly comic reviews. I'm going to try to get a couple of Halloween themed reviews out in the coming weeks. Anyway I'm sure your not here to listen to me talk about my life so let's get into my thoughts about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle show.

When I first heard about this I wasn't sure what to think. I heard it was going to be a CGI show which I didn't really thinks was a good idea. I still kinda don't, and I'm kinda getting sick of the over exposure of CGI shows like Transformers Prime, Green Lantern the Animated Series, and the New Batman show is going to be CGI too. I'm not saying I don't like these shows I just prefer normal Animation. Despite the fact I wasn't 100% behind the CGI I think it actually looks pretty good. It's Cel-Shaded look mixed with it's Anime-esque character movements makes it look almost like a regular cartoon.

I actually liked this show. I think they got the characters down good, and updated them. I think they took the best elements from each version of the Turtles and mixed them together. I especially like this version Michelangelo although he keeps reminding me of Beast Boy from Teen Titans. It doesn't help that they have the same voice actor. I do have some negatives like the fact that they de-aged April O'Neil so there could be a side-plot about Donatello liking her. I 'm not really sure why they did this but last time they changed a major element of the Turtles for a romantic side-plot we got Venus, and the less said about the Next Mutation the better.

I also don't like how they brought back Kraang. Instead of being one alien in a robot suit he's a bunch of aliens in robot suits. Which means they're essentially the Utrom from the 2003 series. Although I do like them more then the Utrom, and there dialogue is hilarious. Overall I think this show is worth checking out if your a Turtles fan, and I recommend it although I think some fans will cry foul because it's not what there use to. Which I thinks is a shame. Anyway I'll see you next time where I will review something for Halloween, and also take a look at Arrow.

Rating: 4/5