[Comics] Annihilation: Ronan

In the late sixties, Marvel Comics started to introduce the alien race known as the Kree. It started with one of their Sentry robots encountering the Fantastic Four as it watched over the Inhumans and this eventually triggered more and more of the Kree becoming aware of the little blue planet known as Earth.

One of the most notable among the early Kree remains to be Ronan, who held the title of Supreme Accuser of the Kree Empire. He was one of the main characters in the various Kree-Skrull War storylines but beyond that he didn't gain much fame in the Marvel Universe. Let's face it, his character's role was a somewhat strange one and the role of Supreme Accuser just seemed like some sort of trumped-up judge - he even had a hammer as a main weapon.

Given his lackluster history, it came as a surprise to me when he was chosen to be one of the main characters of the Annihilation storyline as one of the primary characters including him getting his own mini-series building up to the actual Annihilation comic.

Image via WikipediaDuring the Annihilation storyline, Ronan the Accuser has fallen from grace and has been branded as a traitor to the Kree Empire. Believing in his innocence, Ronan has gone on a quest to clear his name and track down his accuser in order to return to his former status.

He eventually tracks down one of the chief witnesses against him, Tana Nile, amongst the forces of Gamora known as the Graces. Thus he comes head-to-head with Gamora, often tagged as the most dangerous woman in the universe, in an effort to get to Tana Nile and learn the truth of why she made false testimony against him. All this takes place as the Annihilation Wave begins to move through the galaxy including Kree space.

Now my knowledge of Ronan was severely limited prior to this series and I'm sure I wasn't alone in considering him to be a rather two-dimensional character given how he was written back in the earlier years when he often came to blows with the Avengers and the likes of Captain Mar-Vell. His plans seemed to have a sense of forced artificial complexity given when you really took a good hard look at why he was fighting, his motivations came out rather shallow. This continued on in many storylines and probably explains why he was pretty much shelved for so many years.

Come Annihilation, the writers certainly did their best to revitalize him and bring new life and more importantly depth to his character. They explored his being an extremely loyal soldier to the ideals of the Kree Empire, even when tagged as a traitor by his own people and banished from the realm. He remains unceasing in his loyalty to his people and continues to fight in their name throughout the series, somewhat desperately holding on to a higher ideal that he expects the Empire to remain true to.

Plus he's no longer just a guy with a hammer - he is a formidable foe and the true abilities of his Ultimate Weapon really come into play this time around including his ability to manipulate various energies and redirect them as needed. In addition, he seems to possess considerable tactical knowledge and abilities and is able to map out diverse plans and lead his armies into tactical strikes that achieve his objectives as best as possible.

He plays a key role in the main Annihilation comic given a lot of the story takes place as the Annihilation Wave moves through the Kree Empire and ultimately follows how Ronan clears his name and reasserts himself as a leader of his people.

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[Viral Video Chart] Take On Me: The Literal Version

Music videos, more of than not, tend to portray some surrealistic version of the message of the song, often deviating from the actual message and going into strange worlds of random images and colorful animation displays. While this could be argued to be an art form in itself, there are those times when you can't help but wonder what's going on in the minds of the video producers when they agree to a particular concept.

Here's a pretty interesting interpretation of that classic A-ha 80's one-hit wonder song, Take on Me and showing what the song would really be like if we interpreted the video in a literal sense...

#6 - Take On Me: Literal Video Version

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[Movies] Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

My comic book ventures have mostly centered around the big players in the comic book world - which means Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Sure, I'd try dabbling in other titles here and there but such explorations never really went very far.

Thus when certain characters and comic book titles managed to get themselves some level of popularity or even notoriety, I find myself scrambling to learn more about that comic book title through the aid of the internet at large. What would we be without the internet and search engines like Google, eh?

Hellboy is one of those books that I've heard of but never got into myself. However with the help of Hollywood, I've been fortunate enough to get exposed enough to this particular anti-hero through the first film and thus I was one of those rather interested in seeing the sequel.

Image via WikipediaHellboy II: The Golden Army reunites the likes of Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones as the misfit band of government-sponsored supernatural agents Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien respectively. The movie has the Bureau for Paranormal Research (BPRD) struggling to keep Hellboy in check given his constant attempts to attract the attention of the media and have the organization "come out" in a manner of speaking.

Things come to a head when they start investigating what starts as a supernatural murder at an auction house and eventually reveals itself to be the work of Prince Nuada of the Elves in his attempt to bring back the mythical Golden Army of old. He seeks to use the Golden Army to conquer the human world and reclaim what the Elves had lost many years ago.

Clearly, writer-director Guillermo del Toro still has a bit of a hangover after his award-winning Spanish film, Pan's Labyrinth given the nature of many of the characters in this film. Introducing Troll Town may have been central to the plot but it was also an excuse for del Toro to go all out with character creation even though you don't see them ever again. All this makes me rethink how much classic Henson films like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth retain their positions in my personal history for most disturbing creatures given what del Toro has introduced into the world. Plus, what's with his obsession with putting eyes where they shouldn't be? Really, what's up with that?

The story itself was a bit trite and not overly well done. While many will argue that del Toro was intentionally aiming for that pseudo B-movie feel, it doesn't excuse some of the really bad moments throughout the film and those instances of overly extreme ridiculousness that defy all good reason. It's just a bit tricky (to say the least) to balance out the really serious side of the film with the very light humorous moments that don't seem to fit in with the rest of the film.

Plus the whole love aspect between Hellboy and Liz came out really flat and unrealistic and it just didn't do anything for me.

Given everything shown in the trailer versus what was actually seen in the movie, I don't think that I'm the only person who saw the film and thought the same thing - why didn't we get more of the Golden Army? They were one of the coolest concepts in the film and it looks like a lot of the special-effects budget was invested there and yet they hardly got enough screen time to justify the expense. Maybe I liked them a bit too much since I have always been rather partial to robots in all forms, shapes and sizes, but still I think it's pretty fair to have wanted to see more of the mechanical monsters. Come on, they're actually in the title of the movie! They deserve more!

This film was pretty much just okay but wasn't amazing or even necessarily a must-see film. Fans of the comic will see a number of elements they're familiar with although with certain tweaks. Fans of Pan's Labyrinth will see a number of interesting elements (at least visually) but will not be drawn in at all by the plot. Fans of bad drunken videoke singing will go home feeling nostalgic for more alcohol and Barry Manilow. What fun.

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[Comics] Annihilation: Nova

If DC Comics has the Green Lantern Corp and the Darkstars, then Marvel has, well, the Nova Corps. I never really knew much about the Nova Corps before reading Annihilation - I had only encountered Richard Rider as part of the New Warriors, since they had a lot of run-ins with my favorite comic book character, Spider-Man.

What was rather interesting about how Annihilation involved Nova was really to put him back into the intergalactic setting instead of him being just another super-hero who can fly really fast. I didn't know much about Nova before this series and what I have seen I can certainly respect.

Image via WikipediaWhen the Annihilation Wave broke into the "positive" universe from their home in the Negative Zone, one of their first casualties was the bulk of the Nova Corps on the Xandar. Well, perhaps saying "the bulk" were killed given that there weren't many survivors. In fact, there was only one - Earth's Richard Rider.

Quite injured himself, he is contacted by the central intelligence of the Nova Corps - the Worldmind - and tasked with ensuring the future of the Nova Corps. In order to do this, he takes in the Worldmind into himself along with the entire Nova Force - the source of the power for all of the Nova Corps. This gives him far greater powers coupled with the guidance of the Nova Corps Worldmind.

The rest of the series follows the tale of Richard Rider, how he comes to terms with his increased power, the constant prodding of the Worldmind in order to force him to simply flee the conflict and protect itself from the forces of the Annihilation Wave. He is eventually joined by Drax the Destroyer and his human companion, the child Cammi and eventually they work together with many others such as Quasar to help save as many lives as possible from the invading forces of Annihilus.

As with the rest of the Annihilation comics, it certainly does the trick of presenting high-stakes space action. You can't get away from the fact that in many respects, Nova plays a very central role in the overall series. He does have the entire Nova Force at this command, after all, and there are tales of how the entire Annihilation story started as a way to revitalize Nova - they just happened to expand the tale and take in a whole lot of other characters into the mix as well.

The best character brought into this storyline would definitely have to be the Worldmind itself - instead of just being a robotic computer mind that would just provide helpful information or take in commands about how to alter energy distribution and speed. Instead the Worldmind starts out rather overwhelming and oppressive and eventually learns to deal with Richard more along human terms. He even develops a limited sense of humor as he gains more and more experience with dealing with Nova directly within the confines of his mind.

Of course this is not the end of the tale but merely a story that builds up to the overall Annihilation conflict. That's where the real action is set to take place.

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[TV] Political Items of Interest

As the 2008 US Presidential Elections draw nearer, naturally the airwaves (and at the same time the viral video world) are being flooded with political advertisements, news features and satires. This week is definitely no different, but there are two items of particular interest.

First up is a Public Service Announcement (PSA) encouraging people to register and vote in the coming elections, which is a pretty good thing. It's also swamped with celebrities, which is also pretty to look at, haha. The ad was supported by the DiCaprios and tries to be non-partisan - but you can judge that for yourself.

#2 - 5 Friends

And then there's this fun jab by the Simpsons about what it might be like to try and vote for Obama in the coming elections...


#13 - Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama

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[Comics] Annihilation: Super Skrull

As a kid, I was never really a big Fantastic Four fan. Sure, there was that slight coolness factor for the group of such diverse abilities and how they'd often get involved in more galactic-level threats instead of just your run-of-the-mill villains. I did love Doctor Doom, though, so that helped me learn more about them.

What was more interesting for me was one of the Fantastic Four's biggest villains - Super Skrull. Sure, individually the powers of the Fantastic Four were generally cool but nothing overly amazing. However to have a single villain who commanded all of their abilities and utilized in ways far more creative (and often lethal) than how the Fantastic Four employed their powers themselves. I seriously remember a number of times that I chose to be Super Skrull while playing games with friends because of the power he had.

Image via WikipediaIn Annihilation: Super Skrull, we are allowed to take a closer look Kl'rt as an individual. Despite his colorful history, oftentimes scorned and pushed aside by his own people due to their fear of his powers and abilities, he has always remained loyal to his race and has always acted in a manner to protect their interests and safeguard the entire Skrull Empire whether they have sought out his assistance or not.

With the Annihilation Wave's invasion corridor sweeping straight into the heart of the Skrull Empire, Super Skrull takes it upon himself to try and stop them from destroying the planet Zaragz'Na, since he knows his son still lives on that world. In order to do this, he needs to find a way to destroy their primary weapon - a massive device known as the Harvester of Sorrows that can destroy entire planets based on the whims of the Annihilation forces. He find himself accompanied by a lowly young Skrull engineer named R'Kin as he journeys into the Negative Zone where the invasion originated in order to locate a way to defeat them.

Now don't get any false impressions - this is not Marvel's attempt to turn Super Skrull into some sort of anti-hero. He is still a ruthless killer and while his intentions seem noble given they are geared towards the welfare of the Skull Empire as a whole, his methods remain highly violent and often lethal. His uncompromising view of the universe and how he should deal with others who stand to assist him or thwart him remains constant and this helps establish him solidly as a character throughout the series.

They do a smash up job of really showcasing his abilities and what makes him such a lethal opponent beyond just being a guy with the Fantastic Four's powers. He's able to combine the various abilities available to him in rather creative and surprising ways that allows him to kill more efficiently and effectively regardless of the situation. This raw strength partnered with his single-mindedness in terms of pursuing his goal and trying to stop the destruction of Zaragz'Na practically on his own for the most part.

In terms of the overall story arc of Annihilation, it probably doesn't do all that much. This seems to be a bit of a focus on a single portion of the overall storyline and not necessarily a central plot thread just yet. That's not to say this story is without merit - it sets the stage for Super Skrull's nature during the main Annihilation books and explains much of what is driving him during the overall conflict.

This series does a lot for me as a fan of Super Skrull early on. They certainly do great things for the character and bring him back into focus without needing to overly change him into something he's clearly not. They simply fully embrace his nature while better fleshing-out his character and personality.

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