Marvelous Characters

I have multiple issues when I read solicits, watch a commercial, listen to someone talk... Generally when someone would want to convince me of something. Which is whenever words are involved. All of the issues stem from terminology. In this case it's the "strong ____ character" line. It doesn't matter what the blank is --woman, black, gay -- that blank is a problem. Y'see, you're segregating the character, marketing it as the character as being a big deal because of blank. A lot of the time I expect it to be a moderate story trying to ride on the fact that their character is blank. The marketing scheme instantly turns me cynical.

Now, don't get me wrong. We need more strong ___ characters. The issue is making them strong blanks takes away from making them strong characters. A lot of the time I'll hear strong female character and I'll get a female character who's in charge and sassy while all the male characters are idiotic.

Why I bring this up today is Captain Marvel #1 came out today, by Kelly Sue DeConnick. I already love her work from Osborn: Evil Incarcerated, but Captain Marvel, a series that will hopefully be going on for quite some time, is a great book. The reason for this is Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, is a strong character. I'm one of those people who can forgive a flaw or two in the story so long as the characters are consistent and entertaining. Interesting characters make me buy books, movies, etc. Carol is an interesting character. She's flawed, she has dreams, both possible and impossible, and she has a trait that I love in all characters. She's tough. There's a theory that everyone has a favourite ninja turtle, and it signifies one of four different mindsets. Mine's Raphael. Carol Danvers, as Kelly Sue DeConnick writes her, reminds of of Raphael. Of Toph.

What I'm saying is I may have my new favourite book, and a new third favourite super hero. (Hulk, my first favourite super hero. X-23, because she got me into comics and by extension pushed me down my path in life. Ms. Marvel, general badass and entertaining read.)

Oh, Right, That's What I Do

I should probably say that I'm working on an art piece. It should be done by the weeks end, assuming I don't get any more distractions.

This one's not fan art. Not in the traditional sense, though it is a fictional being...

Avenged, Going to Avenge Again Later

Comic con is done, and I've heard wonderful news about all sorts of projects in the works. Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy (Rocket Raccoon!), the Winter Soldier, and what I can only assume is Hel (Thor: The Dark World). And there's Iron Man 3.

Now, I read a description of what was shown, and everything sounds amazing. It seems they're not even trying to hide the extremis ties, and the Mandarin has been confirmed. I'm a big Tony fan, and both of his movies seems to have brought him to a low point before he saves the day. Can't wait to see this new one.

But there's one thing that was denied that makes me very sad. The Hulk's not going to be in Iron Man 3. They may be trying not to over saturate the market, learning their lesson from the horror zone that was Deadpool a few years back (It put Wolverine and Spider-man combined to shame), but the Hulk was the best part of the Avengers, and considering just how amazing every aspect that movie was that's truly saying something. Seriously, I've had a few conversations about the movie and I always come away realizing some new facet about it. It's great.

What I'm hoping is that they're going to throw the Hulk into another movie. Hulk and Thor is always fun. But it looks like I'm just going to have to rewatch the Avengers... Woe is me...

And a reminder. Rocket Raccoon. 2014. It's a thing.

Nightwing

So, in the New 52 they redesigned Dick Grayson, AKA Nightwing, so the blue bird shape on his chest was a red bird shape. I thought it pointless, being that the blue colour kind of fits better to the characters personality, more calm and collected as opposed to rage, and it fits better in a character who's essentially a ninja, it's not as attention grabbing.

But then I saw a picture.

I no longer like Nightwing's new look. Weird that they chose to take stylistic decisions from those films.

Practice

So, a few months ago I was watching a friends house for 'em. During that time I did various things on their fancy entertainment systems and wound up doing a LOT of drawing. Mostly rough stuff, practicing poses and hands and such. One practice, I think I was practicing with measurements, I drew a lovely Ms. Katherine "Kitty" Pryde, aka Shadowcat.

Here's her pencils.

 I honestly have no idea what I was practicing. Could have just been anatomy, could have just been that I've wanted to draw Pryde for a while and haven't found a reason.

Well, recently I got a new scanner that's capable of scanning at 300 DPI (recently being yesterday) because the day before I learned the relevance of being able to do that and just how old my other scanner was. So I threw it in and inked it in photoshop with my tablet. I'm not sure if 300 DPI made a difference on the inking process, but I found it much easier.

Here are the inks.

 And, from there, the natural move forward was to flat colours. There was really nothing special here, I just like flipping between flats and finished versions.

 This is where things start getting interesting. You see, most of my work since I tried doing anything other than the basic shading below I haven't been too happy with. Below, where the lines are obvious and it looks very cartoony, I'm good with that. I like that. Cartoony fits with my style. I'm not a fan of artists who try so hard for realism in comics on a monthly basis simply because the closer you get to realism the more mistakes are noticeable. When it's cartoony you register with what looks human and put a personality behind it. It's basically half-assing your way to a good piece. Or, alternatively, it's not overreaching and getting the same, if not better, results.

So here's cartoony.

 That went one without a hitch. It's simple and easy. I knew it would be simple and easy, and I knew I'd like what I saw. There's just no tricks behind it. But I needed to test my colouring skills, like I've been doing for the past couple dozen pictures, so I did below. And, honestly, I think I'm getting good.

There's the finished Kitty Pryde. At the end of the day I learned me a few tricks I probably should have known before (being that I've used them before) and I got a glorious picture of the best damn teacher in the Marvel universe, along with finishing the most "practiced" picture I've ever done. Now I'm going to do one final practice, the actual printing one, and see how it comes out.

Kitty Pryde was the youngest X-man, forever and a day ago. She proved herself in the field and to Xavier (a story I've had the privilege of stumbling over recently), and over the years she's become one of the most dependable and entertaining X-man on the team. She's a hacker capable of hacking into Stark Enterprise, she was a protege under Wolverine becoming one of the most badass characters in the Marvel universe, she's been all over the worlds (plural) and learned more than I'm capable of by the time she was fifteen. Okay, thirteen, but that's more on me than anything.  Right now she's a teacher for the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning (The Xavier school got blown up enough times that they renamed it and Wolverine took over, which is also one of the most consistently entertaining books on sale), and I couldn't be happier that Jason Aaron is in control of her. I haven't read nearly enough of Kitty Pryde, early or current years, and I can't wait for more.

Amazing Incentive

Another reason to see the movie, which I forgot to mention previously, is for the sequel. The origin story is the only thing that weighs this movie down, and now it's out of the way. A sequel can go either way, but they've got a story lined up. I personally can't wait.

It's good to be a nerd these days.

Amazing!

I feel this needs to be said. I love the new Spider-man movie. I hear a lot of mixed reviews, one big complaint being that it doesn't really cover new ground, and I completely disagree. First off, if you were expecting a drastically new origin story, you're an idiot. Spider-Man becomes Spider-man pretty much the same way he always does. The thing this story does that's new is the characters involved, and it shines for it.

Gwen Stacy, Captain Stacy, and Peter's Parents. First off, Gwen is so much better the Mary-Jane. Gwen is intelligent. She can actually challenge Peter on an intellectual level. MJ is one of those characters that never made sense to me, not in a high school setting anyways. In the comics she's a very nurturing, loving, supermodel. She's also an adult. As a teenager, it wouldn't work out. There's too much of MJ that needs to develop. She needed to go into the real world and realize her looks wouldn't be as useful out there, to have that failure that she wouldn't have as a teenager. Gwen on the other hand is just as much of an awkward nerd as Peter in this one (Stupid awkward sexy teenagers...). In general, Gwen works better than MJ ever did, but especially as a teenager. And Captain Stacy is fun because we finally get to see Spider-man's relationship with the police.

Peter's parents. This is unexplored territory in the movies, and due to movie rights being all over the place it can't be exactly the same as the comics. Peter's parents promotes the major drive in the film, besides uncle Ben. The trailers played up their purpose in this more than it actually was, but it was still an interesting addition, finding out who they were, what they were doing, and how it affected Peter.

And the second reason I loved it is the same reason I had a problem with the older movies. Spider-man quips. In the comics, he talks. A lot. He's smart, he's mouthy. That's something the other movies didn't touch down on nearly as much, and this movie shines for it. The scene with the car thief from the trailers was amazing when done in full. It was hilarious.

And the Lizard! If you're familiar with the recent changes the Lizard has gone through, you'll be familiar with this Lizard. He does keep a lot more of Dr. Connors knowledge than the current Lizard, he's still a chemist when monstrous, but there are a lot of notes from the post Shed world that are in this monster. And dear god is he ever powerful. When he fights Spidey you can really tell that Spidey is horribly overpowered.

All in all, the movie wasn't a new Avengers. But it was better than the old movies, easily. If you don't mind the retread of old territory, and one scene near the end that's kinda overdone, this movie will make you happy. Also, Stan Lee has what is easily his best cameo in this movie.