Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

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A ship taken over by pirates. The death of a father. A young boy thrown overboard. Washing up on the shore of the Island of Bengalla. A strange ritual and a vow. When that boy grew up and became a man, he became the Phantom.

Centuries later, this boy’s descendant—the 21st Phantom (Billy Zane)—is protecting his beloved jungle when thieves steal a sacred skull from a lost treasure trove. The Phantom learns the significance of the skull and discovers it is one of three and should someone ever possess all three, they would have ultimate power. Trailing the stolen skull to New York, the Phantom, now under his civilian guise of Kit Walker, seeks to track down the remaining skulls. While there, he reconnects with his old flame, Diana Palmer (Kirsty Swanson), and the two need to reconcile past differences as Kit learns the location of the second skull. Meanwhile, evil businessman Xander Drax (Treat Williams), in cahoots with the Sengh Brotherhood, a band of pirates—the descendants of the same pirates that were responsible for sinking the ship of the father of the first Phantom—and Drax wants the skulls for themselves. Drax, too, discovers the location of the second skull at the same time Kit and Diana do and after a failed attempt at disposing of Kit, kidnaps Diana and takes her to the location of the third: an uncharted island.

Good confronts evil when the Phantom seeks to rescue Diana while also stopping Drax and the Sengh Brotherhood from uniting the three skulls and becoming a powerful force in the world.

Phantom lore is fascinating, especially the idea that he never dies, or, at least, that’s what criminals and evildoers everywhere think. “The Ghost Who Walks” has been around since 1936, which predates Superman, making the Phantom one of the earliest superheroes. I remember seeing trailers for this flick back when it first came out and getting all excited. It was superhero, swashbuckling adventure. Even saw it in the theatre. On that day I was running a bit behind. If I remember right, I missed the previews and came in right when the movie was starting. The first words I saw where the words that kicked off the film, “For those who came in late.” I really thought the movie somehow knew I was late—or people like me—because then it went into a recap of the Phantom’s origin before launching into the main story. Ahh, to be a young, gullible fanboy again.

This movie was clean, wholesome superhero fun. There was a decent story, superhero action, humor and adventure, with a little romance thrown in. It didn’t take itself seriously, but wasn’t a giant camp fest either. I still pop in the DVD now and then and enjoy The Phantom as a nice break from the oh-so-heavy-drama-laden superhero movies of today. Sometimes you just want to see a good guy busting bad guys and that’s it.

Nowadays, this movie falls short in a few places—the “wow factor,” the costume, the life-or-death-save-the-world-or-die storylines—but I was happy with Billy Zane’s portrayal of the Phantom and with the movie as a whole. I’ve never read any of the comics so my view is completely on the flick and it being a simple superhero story. I will say that this movie has stirred in me an interest in the Phantom and am thinking of one day getting into the comics that spawned him.

The movie is definitely kid-friendly and as a parent who doesn’t let his kids watch a good chunk of today’s superhero flicks due to their mature content, this is one I’d recommend for families or those just looking for a break from the more grown-up, adult-oriented superhero movies of today.

Being a lifelong DC and Superman fan, this new Man of Steel trailer has made me go nuts over a live action superhero movie the likes of which I’ve never been before. The recent Batman movies were very, very good and I was eager to see them, but they didn’t have that element of the fantastic because they’re Batman movies. They’re not supposed to. As cool as the whole Marvel Phase One project was, being a DC fan, there was still something missing for me.

Now that missing piece is in place. Even if Man of Steel is only as good as this trailer, the future of DC heroes on the big screen is going to be something bigger and grander than anything ever unleashed on the world, and Marvel–whose presently the leader–should take notice and should start to worry. DC is killing it in the direct-to-DVD features, something Marvel has just stepped up to with Iron Man: Rise of Technovore. In my opinion, though DC Comics has fewer characters than Marvel–that I’m aware of–the mythology attached to each is more interesting and more vast, easy content for the movieverse.

Enough rambling. The great “Who’s Better? DC or Marvel” debate is one I’ve been having with a friend for a decade and a half. Soon, I won’t need to argue. Man of Steel, Justice League and the others to follow will put an end to it, if this trailer has anything to say about it.

On a side note: I don’t know if the music in the trailer is the official Man of Steel score by Hans Zimmer or not, but following in the footsteps of the great “Superman Theme” from John Williams is no easy feat and the music in this trailer got me going and says to me one name: Superman.

I love collecting things: books, comics, playing cards, toys . . . all in moderation. Which is good because, frankly, if I had my way, I’d spend every dime I make on pop culture. See, when I was younger and lived with my folks, my room was covered in posters, pinned-up action figures, comics–but when you get married and have kids, you can’t indulge as much as you used to. Fortunately, my wife has similar interests to me and our bedroom looks more like a comic shop and art studio than your typical master bedroom, but I still have a pile of stuff in boxes. My Star Wars figures are a good example.

Today my wife put all my Superman stuff in one spot on display, whereas before it was scattered across the bookshelves. I took a video. I just realized as I type this that I have some more Superman stuff in boxes. Will have to pull it out. I plan on doing an update video anyway as we’re tabling at a comic convention this weekend and comic cons are great places to get good deals on collectibles.

So, without further ado, I present to you most of my Superman toy collection.

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4 out of 5

When Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki, makes a deal with the alien race Chitauri to help them secure the Tesseract Cube so they can conquer the galaxy, the Earth suddenly falls into great peril. With even the powerful top secret agency S.H.I.E.L.D. having difficulty containing Loki, there is only one call S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury can make: Avengers Assemble!

The team is gathered–Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye–set out to do battle with Loki and his alien cohorts. If they don’t overcome their differences and learn to work together as a team, the Earth will fall and Loki will rule the planet.

The Avengers brings together Earth’s mightiest heroes to combat a force of evil so great they either stand together or fall together, with the fate of the planet–even the galaxy–hanging in the balance.

The Avengers is a difficult movie to review, more so, give a proper rating to because this movie is very much black and white between its story and its presentation, so that said, I’m going to quickly go over both and you’ll see where I’m coming from at the end.

The story: This is a single-plot movie, very much an A-to-B narrative and incredibly simple—too simple. Aliens are coming, we need to stop them so we’ll get the Avengers to do it. That’s it. From a storytelling perspective, it’s too simple and too predictable. Big bad guy, big good guy(s), let’s fight, good guys win. The end.

However, if you view The Avengers as an end cap/final act to all the movies leading up to it: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man II, Thor, Captain America–then you have something that definitely serves its purpose and more or less let’s each character shine for the same amount of time. In this case, a simple story works despite, um, the many continuity flaws from the previous movies (i.e. Thor somehow now able to come to Earth, which renders the ending of Thor’s movie moot, Tony Stark called upon to be Iron Man in the Avengers despite being banned from doing so in Iron Man II, the characters communicating to each other without earpieces or any communication devices. Maybe they’re telepathic?).

The presentation: This movie is a nerd’s dream come true from start to finish. Assemble your favorite superheroes–of which each were spotlighted in their own movies, almost–put them together and have them go toe-to-toe with a larger-than-life threat that will squash the planet if they don’t come through.

From an eye candy perspective, this movie nailed it. Huge battles, lots of explosions, combat action, hammer throwing, Hulk smashing, shield boomeranging, repulsors firing, arrows shooting, girl fists punching—yeah, it has it all.

It’s also very important to point out that the casting of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk was an amazing choice. I honestly wasn’t too thrilled with the news when I first heard it, with Ruffalo being more a chick-flick romance guy, but he got the role done so well that if there’s a spin-off, I hope he gets the job. He’s definitely earned it.

Chris Evans as Captain America–a Superman performance, which is good and brought a traditional superhero element to the team. As the running joke was throughout the movie, a little “old-fashioned” was what was needed.

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man–do I really need to talk about this? He’s the same Tony Stark from the first two movies, the only difference being he’s mellowed out a bit because, despite his arrogance, he understands life isn’t all about him and there’s other people out there, too. This bit really comes through in this movie.

Chris Helmsworth as Thor–bold, poetic, commanding, everything his character is supposed to be so kudos to him for carrying on with a great performance from the stand-alone movie.

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye–I don’t know much about the comic character other than he’s like Green Arrow, but perhaps with a more military-mind-set, so I can’t comment. Renner did sell me on Hawkeye though, but why couldn’t they give him that awesome mask? Maybe in the sequel.

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow–she really comes into her own in this flick because in Iron Man II, it was more a back-up appearance so we didn’t know much about her. I’m glad she got the screen time she deserved and, come on, her fight scenes were fantastic.

Tom Hiddleston as Loki—he’s the bad guy you love to hate, the one that, even just looking at him, you want to punch in the face. I appreciated how Loki, to a degree, was a villain to sympathize with because of his exile, but you also get mad at him for being such a jerk about it.

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury–an excellent portrayal of Samuel L. Jackson being Samuel L. Jasckon–but under a fictitious alias. Yeah.

The Avengers is a solid good-times-turn-your-brain-off-action-fest that is great for escape and is recommended for that reason. As a spoiler warning, if you want just the action parts, start the movie around 30 minutes in.

Honest assessment is 3.5 out of 5, but because it’s the first movie of its kind and because of all the building up to it that has been going on since 2008, I’ll give it a 4.

At a place of frustration today. I’m super swamped work-wise and have a crazy amount to do by Oct. 10-11. That’s cut off for about five or six different projects, all presently in progress. Has to be done if I’m to make C4 for both my personal work and the work of others.
Also really frustrated about not smoking. I really want to and feel like a kid whose parents aren’t letting them do whatever they want even though, technically, the kid could do it if they wanted to. You know? That place where you feel stuck and you want to stomp your feet and growl because you hate the solid ache of “GAAAAHHH!” inside yet you know you have a chance to make it go away but feel tied up? Yeah. That’s today.
On the craving front, I’m about the same as yesterday, maybe a bit less, so around a 7.
Today’s attitude is an honest: Quitting smoking is dumb.
Anyway, got to go back to typing up edits. Hope everyone is having a better Saturday than me. Think I’m going to a break and read the latest Justice League comic to make me feel better. This is the one with Superman kissing Wonder Woman on the cover.

It’s been a long, long wait for me for this teaser. The past few weeks I’ve be regularly googling for news as to when specifically it’s coming out. When I found out it’s playing in front of The Dark Knight Rises, I knew I was in for not just one awesome Bat-movie, but also a super preview. Unfortunately, the midnight showing of Batman didn’t have any trailers and jumped right into the flick.

But here we are, two The Man of Steel teaser trailers officially released by Warner Bros. They’re both the same, but each have a different voice-over. One by Jor-El (Russell Crowe), the other by Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner).

And they’re incredible. They show you next to nothing and are a mood-setter for sure, but, to me, they show this will be a story about Clark Kent’s journey leading up to Superman, everything from his important heritage, to his place in the world, to the discover of his power, and, based on rumors, plenty of action to boot.

Henry Cavill looks like Superman. To me, he actually looks like a more mature Tom Welling, though Tom is older than him in real life. Nice transition from Smallville to Superman for this fanboy.

I’m excited, but now I have to wait a whole year until it’s release. Actually, about 11 months as I believe it’s coming out June 20, 2013. Still.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you TWO The Man of Steel teaser trailers.

There comes a time in every superhero fan’s life when he looks at a character and just stands in awe. I am a Superman fan. Have been always and always will be, but this new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises looks so incredibly good that–gasp!–I think it’ll rival, if not outdo, The Dark Knight and any other superhero flick that came before it. Except maybe Watchmen, but that’s a whole other thing. I know they used part of the Bane-breaks-Batman’s-back storyline from Knightfall. I also recall seeing thumbnails of the graphic novels inspiring this flick and Batman: The Long Halloween was on there. These are incredibly good stories and doing an amalgam of them–plus the various plot points from the previous Bat-flicks–is genius.

I mean, c’mon! Look at this trailer!

. . . in DC Universe Online, anyway (available for free download for PC and PS3). The other day I saved Superman from Lex Luthor and was officially invited to the Hall of Justice and bestowed a Justice League emblem and an offical induction into the League.

This game has become a pretty big part of my life lately and is especially cool because I get to play as my own superhero character, Axiom-man. First Axiom-man was in novels, then in comics, then in cosplay . . . and now is active in the DCU.

Of course, he’s not a DC Comics character and is exclusive property of Coscom Entertainment, but to “role play” as him so to speak–takes it to a new level, especially since he has superpowers in the game, something you can’t get out of cosplay.

Below are some screen shots of Axiom-man in the DCU. I was able to get his costume pretty close based on the templates/formats available for players. Also in the shots below he’s wearing his Justice League emblem–given to him by Oracle–which he only wears in-game, at least for now.

Take a look, click to zoom in:

News of Note – 03/27/2012

Click links to read.

- Warner Bros. seeks trial in high-stakes Superman rights battle

- ECHO On ComiXology Wednesday!

– Remembering Roger Bonas

I love fan films, namely superhero ones. There are some real gems on the Internet and the other day I came across this one, which was just released. It’s called S: A Superman Fan Film.

What I particularly liked about it was–aside from a couple scenes–the whole thing was shot on green screen. The CGI backgrounds that run through 97% of it give it a cool, surreal comic book edge that I found appealing.

Hope you dig it as much as I did.