Beware The Power of the Darkest Night! JLA: Age of Wonder 2 Review!

Years pass in "The Age of Wonder". Ambition grows. Barry Allen and Ted Knight, now joined by Ray Palmer as The Atom and the enigmatic Plastic Man investigate the explosion at a munitions warehouse that killed Oliver Queen, The Green Arrow. Diana, Princess of the Amazons of Themyscira, was seen escaping the blast. Urban legend The Batman advises that the League should have paid closer attention to an eyewitness. He tells them to find the woman.

As Bruce Wayne, he does. Lex Luthor now is President Wilson's secretary of defense. Diana, an emissary from a Paradise Island, is also Luthor's protege. Luthor is manipulating world events toward world war! Hal Jordan advises the British Army against the Kaiser's forces. He discovers Luthor's treason. In attempting to stop Luthor and Diana, Hal is murdered. 

What comes next is the unimaginable. The Kaiser unleashes an atomic bomb on London, leaving more than 200,000 dead, the city in ruins and uninhabitable.

The one hope is the dying General Jordan send his ring to find Clark Kent. The Super Man returns and unites the League to crush the Prussians. Batman and Diana defeat Luthor. As Luthor is executed for treason, Clark Kent forms the Justice League of Nations.

Adisakdi Tantimedh's story is truly the darkest before the dawn. Luthor's naked ambition to leave a mark and be remembered as greater than The Super Man brings a hellish world tomorrow. P. Craig Russell, Galen Showman and Dave McCaig ignite the explosive fury of Luthor's devilish machinations. It is tragic that Hal and Diana are casualties of Luthor's madness. The hope is that a brighter day rises like a phoenix from the ashes.

JLA: Age of Wonder 2 earns five stars
 

The Man of Tomorrow Can't Catch a Break! "JLA: The Age of Wonder" 1 Review

Jonathan and Martha Wayne are in Philadelphia for the 1876 Exposition. Lois Lane is there, interviewing one of Thomas Edison's top men, Lex Luthor. "The Age of Wonder" opens with Clark Kent making his debut as "The Super Man" at the Exhibition. He selflessly and generously offers his services to Edison. While most men work toward advancement for financial gain. Kent is a humanitarian and philanthropist. Persuaded by Lex Luthor, Kent, Nikola Tesla, Barry Allen and Ted Knight decide to branch off from Edison. Knight develops a power rod, becoming The Starman. Following a freak accident, Barry Allen becomes The Human Flash. With Luthor and Thomas Wayne funding, they become The Justice League of Science. When an alien wielding a Green Lantern power ring arrives on Earth and dies, Hal Jordan joins the group as The Green Lantern. 

Kent maintains his firm stance as a generous humanitarian, even when the public's greed turns noble efforts to failure. Luthor tires to make his mark with unique and singular discoveries, which bring him into direct conflict with Kent. 

Luthor manipulates Jordan to an extreme effort against The Man of Tomorrow.

Adisakdi Tantimedh's story is quite riveting, an ideal Elseworlds "What if..." tale. Unfortunately, the utopian future crumbles under human nature, ambition, avarice and greed. 

P. Craig Russell, Galen Showman and Dave McCaig capture the Industrial Revolution quite vividly and enjoyably. Bob Lappan's lettering enhances the period piece.

JLA: Age of Wonder 1 earns five stars.     

The Bloody Betrayal! Union Jack "Fate" Review

As Union Jack, Joey Chapman is mesmerized by his friend, Kenneth Crichton, who is now the new Baron Blood! It's a simple resolution to the cliffhanger of the previous issue. Almost too simple. Joey doesn't really escape the trap. Kenny takes another victim but then vanishes. The real action hero is the late Christopher. He's not really part of the coven, so without any allegiance, he can help Joey against the baroness.

Baroness Blood has set her sights on a party at Falsworth Manor. So, it's all coming together. The baroness, the vampires, the grail. Joey versus Kenny. Lady Jacqueline and her guests all in the middle!

Then comes the ultimate betrayal! The girl and the goblet! Plus, a set-up for a re-match.

Ben Raab and John Cassaday have crafted a very chilling horror story with underwear on the outside. Cassaday's art with Dave Stewart on colors along with Richard Starkings and Comicraft are pretty creeptastic in a chilling good way.

Blue is the color of the undead, friend or foe!

Union Jack, "Fate" earns four stars!
 

Bride of the Vampire: Union Jack "Faith" review

While his friend, Kenneth Crichton convalesces, Joey Chapman investigates the connection between the cadre of vampires and The Holy Grail. He visits an acquaintance at the museum who explains the history of the grail, the connection to Arthurian legend and divine and mystical properties purported to it. This acquaintance lets Joey know that the grail is on its way to New York. There's also vital information on an encrypted disk, which turns out to be a dead end.

The mystery is, Who is leading this new vampire group? The original Baron Blood was killed years ago by Captain America. And yet, he's returned!

It turns out that the baron took a bride! She's been gathering followers and even making an attempt to lure Kenny Crichton. The sheer irony - Kenny is part of the Union Jack legacy! Union Jack has been battling Baron Blood for ages. His mother, Jacqueline, was Spitfire with The Invaders during World War II!

Ben Raab and John Cassaday have woven a truly macabre thriller. This has all the elements of mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Dave Stewart, Richard Starkings and Comicraft add all the shadows and the scary things that lurk around the corner. The story builds to a shocking cliffhanger for the final act!

Union Jack, "Faith" earns four stars.   
 

I'm an adoptive dad. 

Our adoption journey started in 2004. Cathy and I had been married for fourteen years. We'd been trying off and on - mostly off - to start a family. The reason I say "off" is because we moved around a lot. I worked in radio. I interned for a couple years at Chicago's US*99. I was an intern there at the time John "Katman" Katzbeck passed away. I'd never met him, or J. D. Spangler. I was kind of acquainted with Trish ("The Dish") Biondo. I found out she was a McAuley lady - She went to Mother McAuley in Mount Greenwood, not far from where I grew up in Evergreen Park. My grandmother and aunt lived in Mount Greenwood. I got to meet a few of the other personalities there at US*99. After a couple years, I got a gig in Rockford, as a morning show producer and stunt ("grunt") man. I was a "Wake-Up Crew Gerbil". It's better than Mancow's stuntman - "Turd"! After four years of misadventures in Rockford, we moved on to Columbus, GA to the tune of "The Gerbil Went Down to Georgia".

After four years in Georgia, we moved back north of the Mason-Dixon line to Minnesota. Twelve years at one of the two Country stations in Rochester. Cathy is a far, far better person than I. She followed me from one move to another. Not only was she able to land a new job one right after another, but she also excelled far better than I did at each new position. In the years that I worked in radio, I felt like I always had a "Black Thumb". Like Gilligan, I was stealing failure from the clutches of success. Each new job was a rousing success for Cathy. The mortgage company she worked for in Columbus had a $5,000 discrepancy that Cathy managed to completely clear in virtually no time at all. Her reward for that was a coin that she could redeem for anything. I do mean anything. We kicked it around and decided on a trip to Disneyland. In September. We had fun, but we agreed it would have been more fun with kids.

So, when we moved on for another radio job in Rochester, Cathy put her foot down through the floor. She wanted to get rid of our second car which was a U-Haul truck, stop living out of packing boxes, settle down, plant roots and start a family. So, she got us into a fertility program. That's when she was diagnosed with cancer. It was August of 2004. The doctor gave us the diagnosis on a Wednesday and scheduled surgery for two days later, on Friday. From the Fall of 2004 through December of 2010, we were in one adoption program after another, trying to find the right fit.

We finally made a connection in January of 2011. Our first child came home to us in October of 2011. Our second child came home December 7th, 2012 (Yes, "a date that shall live in inFAMY!") Our third child came home at the end of May 2014.

I'm not a procrastinator, but just the other day, I finished reading Sherrie Eldredge's "Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew".

I found it very informative. Not so much about International Adoption - our three were all in Ukraine. 

Adoption starts in rejection.

Eldredge writes, "...one must enter into freedom through pain." She continues that companions on that journey are, "...truth and suffering." 

The sorrow and grief of adoption goes deep down, to an individual's DNA. It runs so deep that, at times, it can be almost inexplicable.

Eldredge's book addresses how to handle and manage the unknown. How to car for the broken, hurting, rejected individual. There are things adoptive kids may not be aware of that they are going through.

If you, or someone you know, is affected in any way by adoption, this is a good book to read.

If you'd like a peak at our adoptions, you can visit us on Facebook, Cathy and Dave's Adoption Journey. 

        

Like Fingernails on a Chalkboard

"They" say, It takes all kinds to make a world... some days I wonder, Why?!

I worked in radio for twenty-one years. Just a few years shy of a "gold-watch" retirement. All of the years were in the Country format. I could have picked Rock. I grew up on Rock. I was more comfortable in the Country format. The Country rule was, if you wouldn't say it to Grandma, don't say it on the air.

I enjoyed my years in the Country format. I had a lot of fun and met a lot of the big name "A-List" performers. I got my picture taken with Shania Twain twice. I was herded through the meet-n-greet line like cattle and I did say "moo", but still...

When I started the last few years of my radio career, I worked with a morning host who did an on-air bit about "Movie Stars You Can't Stand!" Pretty self-explanatory. What movie star is like fingernails on a chalkboard? You can't watch a movie he or she is in?

His pick was Andrew McCarthy. Couldn't stand him, or Weekend at Bernie's. Okay, so it ain't Shakespeare, and it ain't Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein. It's sort of middle of the road. It's wacky and full of hijinks. He's not horrible in Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin, or Joy luck Club. Okay, so maybe Mannequin is a little creeptastic... But on the whole, McCarthy comes across as awkwardly genuine. Kinda relatable. Joe Average. 

My personal pick would be Giovanni Ribisi. I just saw him in Avatar: Fire and Ash. He's back. Every corporate or military character in the Avatar films is just blatantly d**k-headed. They are written as the worst kind of human beings. Their only purpose is to strip the planet of resources for Earth. Unobtanium. Whaling for the liquid or blood of the indigenous species. It's like Dances With Wolves in space.

But it doesn't stop there. Ribisi plays Phoebe's younger brother on Friends. The storyline there is that he falls in love and marries his teacher and then Phoebe becomes surrogate mother to their triplets. The sitcom takes a real-life issue and turns it into farce. Your mileage on that may vary, however, Ribisi just comes off as an incredibly annoying character.

Don't even get me started on his role as Nicholas Cage's younger brother in the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds. I like Christopher Eccleston and just about everyone else in the cast - except Ribisi.

Another pick would be Seth Rogan. I've tried to enjoy him in Pineapple Express... but he's just horrid in Fanboys and The Green Hornet. He was supposed to be horrible in Fanboys. He played two characters, a diehard Star Trek fan and some other character. He was obnoxious as both. That was the point. However, his take on Britt Reid was to play him like a male version of Paris Hilton. A party-boy, who experiences an awakening and becomes a caring and sincere hero as the underworld figure The Green Hornet. If the movie's failure is any indication, that just didn't work. Fan-casting the role, I would have gone with Greg Kinnear as Britt Reid. He more embodies the Van Williams vibe for the role. Yes, he was an arrogant jerk in Mystery Men, but he was convincing as an arrogant jerk. 

Those are my picks. Is there a performer that is just fingernails on a chalkboard for you?

Keep it clean and civil. Grandma may be listening...

Don't forget, you can visit me or follow me over on ComicVine as AirDave, and follow me on Facebook as Earth-Dave.

The Roddenberry Utopian Vision

There seems to be some "hue and cry" over the cancellation of Starfleet Academy. Opinions drawn over characters like Holly Hunter's among others. With fans going back and forth. There are fans saying that cancellation will make the show more popular, and other fans going back to Gene Roddenberry's "original vision" for Star Trek...

I laugh. I laugh at the "superior intellect".

Gene Roddenberry did envision a perfect, utopian future... without conflict. Which made telling Star Trek stories challenging. How do you tell a Star Trek story where everybody gets along? There has to be some conflict. There has to be some pro-versus-con (or Khan), some good-versus-evil. Some challenge.

Roddenberry's vision of the future? What actually hit the screen?

In "The Cage", Majel Barrett is first officer. That's forward thinking. There's Spock. An alien. Subordinate to Pike and possibly "Number One". It wasn't until the late '80's and into the '90's that a woman was a starship captain. It wasn't until Star Trek: Discovery that an alien was a starship captain.

When Shatner was cast and Star Trek finally launched as a series, we still see that 300 years in the future we're still objectifying women. Men wear pants. The female crew members wear skirts that barely cover their bottoms.

Aliens are either evil or dumb. Or, if they're "Vulcanian", they're arrogant jerks.

We're still yelling and pontificating in the future. There's still hate and avarice.

The point of each episode is to face that darkness we try to hide and learn and grow from it.

As progressive and forward thinking as Roddenberry was, what ended up on screen was a future that was very much a product of the times. More of a pop culture commentary of the '60's.

What's enjoyable about Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the dialogue that skewers the utopian vision.

The real premise of Star Trek is that even in the future, humans are still pretty much the same. It's only the technology that changes.

But that's just my two cents worth...

By all means share your thoughts in the comments. Keep it civil. Don't say anything in the comments you wouldn't say to your mother or your grandmother. Remember you can always find me on ComicVine as AirDave and on Facebook at Earth-Dave.