Happy Friday folks!

This past week Marvel’s SIEGE event began, and the week before DC gave us the latest issue of BLACKEST NIGHT. Now, as good as these books might be, I’m a bit event-ed out. There is only so much my poor comic reading brain can take before I just want a few years of status quo. Luckily, I have a great number of alternatives; I can go find some hidden gem of a new small press book, or if I really need my super hero fix, I can always turn to my long boxes for comfort. Now I know that you are thinking, “Ben, I’m event-ed out too, but I love Iron Man! How am I supposed to read I.M. without dealing with this SIEGE nonsense?” I understand your plight, but there are plenty of great single hero stories out there for you to read until the events pass. Let Uncle Ben learn ya:

IRON MAN:

“The Iron Man in the Mask” — Joe Quesada actually took over the writing chores on IRON MAN for a little while (it was only 7 issues), but his run was a lot of fun, with the Iron Man suit becoming sentient and deciding Tony wasn’t doing a good enough job. Beautiful art by Sean Chen also helped to make this a fun little run.

“Extremis” — Warren Ellis and Adi Granov rebooted Iron Man a few year ago, and the story was pretty awesome, basically turning Tony into a cyborg. Granov also showed why all other IRON MAN artists should bow before him.

CAPTAIN AMERICA:

Ed Brubaker’s current run– Go back and re-read Cap since Bru has taken over. Cap was never a must read until Ed took over, now it’s so good, I don’t even care that it’s Bucky’s book. Steve Epting’s photo-realistic art is beautiful and enthralling. I know that this run directly leads to SIEGE, but it’s a big run, so if you go all the way back to the begining, the event should be over by the time you are current again.

THE ULTIMATES V1– The best Cap ever.

THOR:

- Walt Simonson’s Thor: No one has ever captured the greatness of Thor like Walt Simonson. Even the norse people who came up with Thor wish they could tell stories as well as Walt did. You could be happy with any of the Simonson drawn/written arcs, but my favorite is the Surtur saga.

- JRJR/ Jurgens Thor: Thor gets rebooted every few years, and it’s usually pretty good. The JRJR drawn Thor is a thing of beauty, and Dan Jurgens did a fine job of finding plenty of things for the Thunder god to smash up.

Fear not DC fans, I have solo hero stories for you as well:

GREEN LANTERN:

“Emerald Dawn”- This story gets extra points because it was the first comic that I ever spent money on when I was just a burgeoning nerd. It’s basically just a retelling of GL’s origin but its great. MD Bright lends some very dynamic bencils to the story as well, juggling a large cast of humans and aliens.

“Rebirth”- The story that brought Hal Jordan back from death and suckiness is a great little mini to read. Ethan Van Sciver can do no wrong in my mind as an artist, and Geoff Johns undefrstands Hal (and the other lanterns) as well as anyone.

FLASH:

“Iron Heights”- Another Johns/ Van Sciver team up. This one has the flash in a prison against a bunch of super crazies, one of whom cut out his own tongue. Wonderfully creepy.

The  Waid/ Wieringo run: Some of the most fun that THE FLASH has ever been was when Mark Waid was doing the writing. Waid inserted all sorts of neat ideas like the speed force into the speedster’s lexicon.  Mike Wieringo’s hyper kinetic art was a perfect match with the writing, and some of the best FLASH work ever (and yes, I know the cover I am using doesn’t feature Wieringo’s interior art).

Well folks, hopefully that gets you through until this latest bout of events ends. Thanks for stopping in, see you tomorrow!

A few years ago I was injured while fighting a bear.  I killed the bear, but not without a price — I sprained my ankle.  Yes, I know it’s hard to believe that I could have suffered injury at the hands of so small a beast, but it is true.  I was out of “work” for a few weeks and I asked my friends and family to give me ideas for things to do while bedridden for a while (it was a very serious sprain).  One of my friends offered me his collection of a show called Smallville, maybe you’ve heard of it?  Well, as someone who loves a good comic book and an on-again, off-again fan of the man of steel, I took up this well-intentioned gift and finished (what was) the entire show in a few weeks.  I was in no way enamored or in love, but it was entertaining enough to pass the time and he gave me the whole collection at once so, there you have it.

If the power rangers were from Kansas…

Now from what I understand  the show is still on after 50 or 60 seasons now and Clark has yet to don his iconic dress and Mr. Luthor left the show — meh.  Normally I wouldn’t care enough about a megacorporation raping established cannon like this, but I heard something the other day that rattled my geeky cage; a young boy was with his mother inside of a Target, begging her for one of the seasons on DVD.  The mother denied him and he went on to say, “But I need to know if Clark and Chloe get together.”  I couldn’t help myself and butted in, “You know Lois and Clark end up together in the end, right?”  The child looked at me like I punched his mother and replied, “Maybe in the comics, but Smallville isn’t like the comics, it’s actually good!”  I then punched the child.  His mother took offense so I punched her as well.  Then I grabbed all of the Smallville DVDs, stole them, and burned them in my backyard as a sacrifice to the continuity gods.

If you didn’t know this before, I’m going to fill you in on a little secret now: Smallville is a piece of sh*t.  It’s not a piece of sh*t the way a person who sleeps with your girlfriend is a piece of sh*t, scheming and conniving.  Smallville is a piece of sh*t the way Ryan Leaf is a piece of sh*t, promising, but stingy and too self-involved.

The show started with a great idea: Bruce Wayne before he becomes Batman — Great!  Wait, huh?  That’s right Smallville was originally going to be Gotham and to be honest, I’m thankful they didn’t.  Who knows how greed-rape would’ve ruined the caped crusader for me…  Anyways, after Batman’s story got axed, Alfred Gough (Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, Spider-Man 2, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) and Miles Millar (who partners with Gough on many of the previous titles, but also celebrates success with The Hannah Montana Movie) came up with the same formula for Superman — Clark in Smallville.  In and of itself a great idea!

While season one was freak-of-the-week, the following seasons have revolved around greater story arcs involving several DC characters, heroes and villains.  Okay.  Fine.  So what’s the problem?

The problem is that Smallville the TV show isn’t Smallville from the comics.  I know a lot of people defend the show saying, “Smallville is its own continuity,” but to me, that’s horse sh*t.  Why would you make a show about a younger version of the most famous superhero ever, if you’re not going to stick to the details?  It’s the details that make him great!  I can understand a few changes in the name of interpretation, but some of the stuff the CW has done is just bad (I’ll get to details in a second).

A show with this doesn’t need good writing.

And if you absolutely must change things around, do it for a good reason; if the word money comes up in the conversation, it’s not a good reason.  When I say “good” I mean “of moral fortitude,” in other words, if you’re going to have Lex Luthor live in Smallville (for much longer than he should’ve) there better be a good reason behind it.  What you’re doing at that point is changing cannon, not reinterpreting it.  A reinterpretation would be something like, changing the design of Supe’s suit, or making Lois a blonde, but creating a character named Chloe who will exist as one of the most significant characters in Clark Kent’s life is going to change his future, that’s something that’s hard for me to take.  Now, Ready for the list?

Lex don’t love dem hoes.

1.  Lex Luthor.  This guy should never have been in the show, well, at least not until Clark moved to Metropolis, or at least just for a brief stint according to cannon.  If you needed him to be in the show in order to give Clark a nemesis, than maybe a show about Superman before he was Superman wasn’t such a good idea in the first place!  What you’ve done instead is taken a series of events and moved them back in time.  That’s not really impressive…  We know Clark and Lex become enemies, I thought Smallville took place before all that.

Cute, but unnecessary, like munchkins.

2.  Chloe Sullivan.  The idea of Chloe is fine: a high-strung, headstrong reporter who will stop at nothing to “get the story.”  Are you f*cking kidding me?  I have an idea, let’s do a show about Superman before he was Superman and all we really have to do is write about superman with all the people he knows when he is superman, but make them teenagers and give them different names — SHENANIGANS!  We didn’t need Lois Lane in this show yet!  I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BEFORE ALL THAT!  This was a cheap way to create a relationship that wasn’t supposed to happen to Clark yet…  Chloe Sullivan did not exist in the comics-proper.  I understand the need for more supporting characters in Smallville, sure you can even make some up, but do they have to be copies of people we already know and love?  PS: Allison Mack is cute.

Ginger or no, let Jimmy be.

3.  Jimmy Olsen.  You killed Jimmy Olsen?!  Clark Kent isn’t even Superman yet and you killed Jimmy Olsen?  Are you f*cking kidding me?  I know, I know:  He wasn’t really Jimmy Olsen, but Jimmy Olsen’s younger brother Jimmy Olsen.  Oh, okay.  Let me bend Ms. Continuity over a bit so it hurts less when you f*ck her!

I see: Heroes. CW sees: $$

4.  Flash, Cyborg and every other mucked up ancillary character…  Cyborg was too old, (that) Flash was too young, Aquaman, well he just sucked, Oliver Queen should’ve been the same age as Superman, Papa Kent didn’t run for Senator, and Lionel Luthor didn’t exist…  You’ve destroyed the fictional reality of Superman, please leave the rest of DC alone.

Look, I’m fine with reimaginings, I think it’s neat to see what different people do with different materials.  All I’m asking for here is a bit of discretion when referring to the “greatness” of Smallville.  If you really love the Superman mythology, go support the comic community and buy a book!  Otherwise just admit that you like the Gilmore-Girl-like writing, typical WB/CW teenage angst drama, and keep your nose out of Superman all together.  You can play with Superman, just don’t f*ck with him.

Two good things to come from Smallville?  Kreuk and Durance.  Especially Durance.

Until next time,

Mr. Wolff

**UPDATE: This video is awesome.  Thanks to broken for the heads up!

Adobe’s first logo

Hello peoples. Street Fece here again after last weeks LBCC. This week is going to be all about the up and coming CS5. If you are doing anything in the design field then you what CS5 is. Everyone else CS5 stands for Creative Suite 5 which is the latest version for the next major software update from Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe whether you like them or not produce some amazing tools for artists and developers. These tools give you the ability to create almost anything you can think up.

Some quick facts about Adobe taken from their own website. Adobe Systems Incorporated offers business, creative, and mobile software solutions that revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information. Adobe customers include enterprises, knowledge workers, creatives and designers, OEM partners, and developers worldwide. The company was founded in December 1982 by Charles Geschke and John Warnock on a mac. Yes even back then designers liked macs. They are named after Adobe Creek which ran behind Warnock’s home in Los Altos, California. The company has had great success and last year generated $3.58 billion. If you can’t get enough adobe history then check out this PDF for a lil more history.

OK so CS5 is what we all want to know about. Well I was getting kind of anxious about when this next version would be upon us so I did some searching and found CS5.org. When I first went there only a couple of things had been posted but I kept checking back now and then as newer posts came in. Now if you go to the site there are some really cool videos and developer info about the new stuff being implemented. Keep reading because below you will find my favorites so far from the blog.

Adobe Photoshop is getting some updated content aware scaling features and new brushes. Content aware scaling is something few new about in CS4 and it is very useful. The basic description if you don’t want to watch the video is that an image could be scaled and Photoshop would do its best to not distort certain objects like people. Once again this is better seen in action. The brush tools are getting a much needed update. Were talking actual bristle brushes with a 3d preview and the ability to mix paint and colors. You just have to see what I am talking about in the videos below.

Flash is dominating this blog with the most posts. Flash is getting so many cool and MAJOR updates. The two that really interest me the most are the direct to Iphone publishing and physics. The Iphone publishing is something that is going to be very nice. Many online games are done in flash and flash does not currently run on the IPhone. So to now have the ability to publish straight to the Iphone is really cool. Phyisics is not new to flash. Physics was only available to you if you were a coder. If you were a flash designer you were SOL. Not anymore now we designers can partake in these new Physics features. That lady’s voice in the beginning of this video is very annoying. Watch it to the end if you want to see the new physics features.

If you want to keep up on these updates then do what I do. Check the page once a week and there is sure to be something new to Nerd out on. Oh and just so you know the new version of CS5 will be out in April 2010.