Happy Birthday: Aaron and Shawn Ashmore!

Today marks the birth of twin actors and all around cool guys Aaron and Shawn Ashmore. They are 31, which makes them about ten years older than they look.

For the longest time, I didn't even know there were two of them. I just noticed the same guy appearing over and over again in some of my favorite movies and TV shows. After a while, I noticed the name Ashmore appearing in the credits, but I never made the connection that there were often two different first names. I'm pretty sure it was my friend Justin who made the discovery that this one actor was actually two... and that they were twin brothers.

I think they are both cool, likable, talented actors, though I couldn't pick a favorite, nor would I want to. I loved Shawn's work on Veronica Mars and his spot-on portrayal of Jimmy Olsen on Smallville, but Aaron was just as good -- and perhaps made a a better name for himself -- as Iceman in the X-Men movies. Aaron also had the lead in that Earthsea mini-series, and even did a couple episodes of Smallville before his brother became a regular cast member.

Interesting tidbit: Aaron is the one with a photo on the IMDB, but Shawn actually has one more credit to his name. Anyway, happy birthday, guys!

Robin Hood

Ugghh.

When this movie came out and got panned by the critics, I didn't understand. I mean, it looked awesome, had a fantastic cast, and was directed by Ridley Scott. The critics are fools, I said, because they usually are. Most movies that I end up love usually got panned by the critics. I never got around to seeing it, however, and because it was kind of a flop, it didn't stick around for long. Well, I finally got around to renting it, and owe something of an apology to those critics. This movie kind of sucked.

On paper, this sounded like a sure thing. Russell Crowe as Robin Hood and reunited with the director of Gladiator. How could it go wrong? Well, for one thing, it's just boring. There is absolutely nothing interesting, engaging, or entertaining to be found. Some of the acting performances are fine, but the battles are boring and the story is bloated and overly convoluted. Who cares about the history of Robin Hood? If you're going to give his origins, at least make it somewhat interesting. It was an hour before Robin Hood even made it to Nottingham. And I'm not exaggerating. I checked the timer on my DVD player.

And then we have some nonsense about Robin pretending to be the returned husband of Cate Blanchett's Maid Marion, which never made any sense to me, and made their romance feel not just forced and contrived, but kind of gross and inappropriate. It really only took a day or two before she hooked up with the man who came to her town just to tell her that her husband had died in battle?

Sure, there was a lot of action, and most of the battle sequences were epic, but there was nothing here that we all haven't seen dozens of times by now. Giant battles -- no matter how well done -- simply aren't all that exciting anymore, unless something new and different is being offered. This movie just looked like a two hour version of that opening battle form Gladiator, only no where near as good. This movie just didn't feel like Robin Hood. I understand that they were attempting a more realistic approach, but it just felt like Gladiator part 2. Honestly, I would rather have seen Gladiator part 2. The only real update they made to the Robin Hood myth is that they made him into a bit of an asshole.

Russell Crowe is a brilliant actor and Ridley Scott is a wonderfully talented director, but this movie wasn't even as good as Prince of Thieves. Honestly, I didn't event think it was as entertaining as Men in Tights. Sucked.

Classic Review: The Savage Dragon #s 1 - 50

I collected the Savage Dragon pretty faithfully for the first 50 issues or so, with just a few lapses here and there. I have written a great deal about Image Comics lately, so I couldn't help myself by digging into my old back issues and checking some of them out. Savage Dragon was always a favorite of mine, and it's the Image title of which I own the most titles. I collected it from the beginning, spanning about six years of my life where I lived in two different countries and three different states. I stopped collecting it not because I lost interest in the title, but because I began to lose interest in comics in general. But, anyway, I reread every issue of The Savage Dragon in my collection, so I figured I'd give my thoughts here.

The Savage Dragon is written and drawn by Erik Larsen, and it details the adventures of a character known then only as Dragon, a massive green man with a fin on his head. That's pretty much the full extent of the characterization even across fifty of so issues. He becomes a cop and he often talks about the importance of upholding the law and fighting for justice. Also, he seems to enjoy the company of women. Beyond that, I can't say I know much about the character's personality. Or, really, about the personalities of any of these characters. Larsen is a wonderful artist and he writes snappy dialogue, but characterization was obviously not one of his main priorities as a storyteller. But that's fine because, at the end of the day, this is a fun comic where lots of people beat each other up.

Dragon is the main character, obviously, but there is also a huge cast of supporting players an villains, almost all of whom are really lame. There is a character named Star who shoots stars, a character named Dart who throws darts, and a character named Ricochet who, um, ricochets off of stuff. As character creators go, Larsen isn't exactly up there with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby created the entire Marvel universe. Erik Larsen created Freak Force. Then again, maybe it's just me because the letters at the back of the book are always full of correspondences from fans who love all of the characters. There was one funny letter that was published after Star had appeared maybe once for maybe a page from a guy who had a petition going to demand Star got his own series. Really, guy? And, of course, since this was Image, Star did get a series, as did most of these other dumb characters, all of which lasted maybe two issues at most.

And the villains are even worse. The main villain for most of these early issues is Overlord, a completely generic crime lord who looks exactly like Doctor Doom. Then there are such brilliant creations as Cyberface, Mako, Cutthroat, and Dung, who shoots poop at people. Seriously, just look at these losers.

And there's actually a character named She-Dragon. Ugh.

According to the letters pages and the editorials supplied by Larsen, many of these characters were created when Larsen was a kid, and it really shows. Hey, I used to create comic book characters when I was a kid too, but as an adult you don't see me publishing the adventures of Super Don. Nobody wants to read that. And I don't think anybody wants to read about Mighty Man and Star.

As a writer, Larsen tells his stories entirely through dialogue. For some reason, he doesn't like narration, captions, or thought balloons. This was an artistic choice with which I won't question, but it does make every issue read more or less the same way, and it takes away some major tools of comic book writer. What's wrong with captions and narration? The lack of these things, along with the lack of any real subtlety from Larsen as a writer, leads to a lot of scene transitions that feel abrupt and often make no sense. There are often scene changes mid page that you won't even realize at first, which leaves you wondering why there are different characters that weren't there before. This was a major problem for me as a reader. Just use captions and stuff, man.

But, despite all of that, these stories were still fun to read. Obviously I enjoyed them at the time because I kept buying them, but I still enjoyed them this time, because I kept reading them. I never really found myself reading issue after issue because I really cared what was coming next, since the plots were really kind of boring the characters were all unengaging, but the issues were still fun to read because they were filled with so much energy and action and funny dialogue. I just liked them, even though just about every issue was a variation of "Dragon fights villain. Dragon wins."

There were a lot of guest appearances from other characters from other comics, most of which didn't really work in my opinion. There were the usual guest appearances from various other Image characters like Spawn and Youngblood and the Maxx, but there were also cross-overs with characters published by other companies, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles and Hellboy. Having the Dragon fight alongside the TMNT was fun, but why was Hellboy in the Savage Dragon? That made no sense to me, and it seemed completely contrary to the universe that was established in the Hellboy comics. I'm a huge Hellboy fan. I'm sorry, but Hellboy doesn't exist (nor does he work within the context of) the Image universe. So it got annoying to see so many cross-overs with characters that simply didn't work in this context, but they kept appearing just because Larsen thought they were cool.

Worst of all was the cross-over with Mars Attacks, which made absolutely zero sense. In one issue, the Martians attack the Earth (like in that terrible movie), until the Dragon is transported to Mars... where he kills everybody on the entire planet. The Savage Dragon actually caused the mass genocide of the entire Marian species, and I'm not making this up. When he wrote the story, I don't think Larsen really thought about how the Dragon was committing genocide, since the entire issue was clearly played for laughs, but it really struck me as odd and completely ill-fitting with the rest of the series. Throw into that the fact that there was no more mention of the Martian attack ever again, and all of the damage that was caused was gone by the next issue. Just dumb.

As an artist, however, Larsen is a lot of fun. This is just a cool looking book with lots of explosions, fight scenes, and hot chicks with big boobs. I will admit that the boobs got a little old after a while (I never thought I'd admit to something like that), since every female character was so well endowed and, for whatever reason, always had erect nipples. Chicago must be really, really cold. Maybe it's all that wind. But, seriously, is this supposed to be arousing?

I always loved Larsen's work, especially back when he replaces Todd McFarlane back on Amazing Spider-Man. A lot of people complained and accused him of being a McFarlane clone, but I thought he was way better. His stuff is just so much fun and so full of energy and excitement. And for as hyper detailed and full of crackle as it is, it also feels clean and readable, which made him a far step ahead of his peers at Image. And while he isn't really a very good writer, he still managed to tell a fun story in a fun story book. Even though they needed an editor and Larsen needed to be reigned in and given a little more guidance, these are cool comics that I definitely recommend checking out if you haven't read them before, or given a second look if you used to love them too.

But skip that Star series.

No Ordinary Family

The first episode of ABC's new superhero TV show was available as a free download on iTunes, so I figured I had no reason not to check it out. It wasn't anywhere near as brilliant as the first episode of Heroes, but let's hope it never gets as bad as the last few seasons of that show. It was nothing mind-blowing or all that original (in fact, it was incredibly cliche and derivative), but it was pretty cute and fun and entertaining.

The basic premise of the show is that an "ordinary family" is given super powers. The mother is a some kind of research scientist who accidentally exposes her husband and their two kids to some kind of extraordinary plant that grants them all extraordinary powers. The dad gets superstrength and becomes impervious to harm, the mom gets super speed, the daughter gains the ability to read minds, and the son gets... smart? I don't really know what the son's powers were, since his were the last to manifest themselves and were kept vague. Toward the very end, they just showed him becoming really good at math and acing his test. All things considered, the kids got some lame ass powers. I mean, I'd love to be super smart and telepathic, but as a TV viewer, I'd much rather watch a group with more visually thrilling powers than that. Let the daughter should lightning bolts from her fingers or something.

This pilot was basically a "first issue" origin story, where we meet this family that is somewhat dysfunctional and growing apart. Their powers slowly begin to manifest themselves, and we see some cliched but fun scenes where each member starts to practice and test their powers out. There is one really fun scene where Michael Chiklis tests out his powers by renting out an entire baseball batting range while he lets the machine toss fastballs at his chest. And the sequence where the Julie Benz first uses her speed powers was amazing and stands out as a special effects masterpiece. That was the best use of superspeed I've ever seen in any movie or TV show.

As fun as the premise was, it's really the cast that made this episode so fun. Michael Chiklis is just one of those actors who's so good and so engaging, he was just as fun to watch before he got superpowers than he was at the end where he was jumping over tall buildings and punching apart cars. He is just a really good actor who is believable both as a loving family man, and as a larger than life super hero. The scenes were it was just his character talking with his best friend, played by the always great Romany Malco, were ridiculously entertaining and charming. And Julie Benz as the mom is gorgeous and really likable as well. The pilot is worth checking out just for the scene where she tests out her speed wearing a pink tanktop and spandex pants. The best thing I can say about the kids is that I didn't find either of them to be annoying at all. But I don't remember anything about either of them either.

So I liked it, and I'll probably watch it again. The cast was great, the story is fun, and the special effects and action sequences were phenomenal. However... I dunno. It did feel too much like the Incredibles, which felt too much like the Fantastic Four. I understand that ABC wanted to create something unique with completely new characters, but considering the long, rich history of super powered character, it still seems silly to me that we have a show with another super strong character, another character with super speed, etc. Whenever Hollywood attempts to create their own superheroes, they always end up failing or creating something that feels like a cheap knock-off of a better, more established character we all know already from comics. But maybe ABC will prove me wrong and this show will establish itself as something unique and brilliant in its own right. Anyway, the pilot was fun.

Video Clip of the Week: Donnie and Marie Starwars Special

This is just awesome. This special from the Donnie and Marie show is a step above the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, but not by much. At least it has funny guest bits from people like Red Foxx and Paul Lynde. Also, Kris Kristofferson as Han Solo is incredible.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

This was, without question, the best film I've ever seen that was adapted from a videogame. Of course, that doesn't really mean all that much since every other movie that's been adapted from a videogame was terrible. Prince of Persia wasn't all that great, but it certainly wasn't terrible. The highest praise I can give Prince of Persia is that it failed in all of the normal ways that makes a movie mediocre, instead of in all of the ways that made Mario Brothers or Mortal Kombat 2 so god awful. Anyway, I liked it ok.

I honestly don't think I've played a Prince of Persia game since the original came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I remember that game for being incredibly frustrating and annoying and completely unfun to plat, but it definitely had some beautiful animation, lots of jumping, and a bit of swordplay. This movie was also beautiful to look at, had lots of jumping, and a bit of swordplay. It's fair to say that this is probably a very faithful adaptation, as far as these things go. Although, had it been released as an Assassin's Quest movie, I wouldn't have noticed any real difference. But at least it didn't have Dennis Hopper as a dinosaur or JEan Claude Van Damme as an American special forces fighter.

That isn't to say the story was perfectly done or all that well told. It was actually way too convoluted, crammed with pointless stuff, and hard to follow. And if anybody understand what actually went down in that big finale, clue me in. That went over my head or I wasn't paying attention or something. It's a big, epic film about rival kingdoms going to war, infighting among a family for power over the throne, the framing of the prince for a murder he didn't commit, then there was some nonsense about a protecting the guardian of some dagger that controls time, but really keeps back the forces of the gods from destroying the entire Earth. Huh? Too much. The dagger that sends people back through time was a neat visual gimmick, and it probably added a level of strategy to the videogames (if, in fact, it was ever even in any of the games), but it added nothing to the film and just made things that much more bloated and confusing. This shouldn't just been Prince of Persia, no Sands of Time.

Also, this movie alternated between looking great and having cool sets, to looking incredibly cheap and just bad. The budget was reportedly $200,000,000, but I can't for the life of me figure out where it all went. Many scenes just look like a few characters standing around in front of a green screen, with really bad cgi backgrounds thrown in later. And most of the CG shots are really, really poor. But the wardrobes were nice and some of the location shooting was quite well done. But where did all that money go?

Maybe the money went to the cast. At least, I hope it did, because even though there aren't any huge stars, they were all really great, charismatic, and fun to watch. Basically, if there's any real reason to watch this movie, it's to see such fun performances by people like Alfred Molina, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Coyle, who was absolutely awesome as the newly crowned king of persia. I also really like Jake Gyllenhaal, who is just a really good actor and a great looking kid. He's always fun and interesting to watch, and he did a good job carrying this movie. And Gemma Arteton is just a very beautiful woman who is well suited to playing ephemeral goddess and persian princesses.

So I liked it. I enjoyed the performances by the actors, thought the action set pieces were exciting and well done, and even mostly liked what little of the story I actually thought made sense. I guess the secret Hollywood has figured out is that you can get a good movie based on a videogame, so long as that videogame wasn't all that fun to play in the first place.

That Facebook Movie

So that Facebook movie comes out today. Now, I don't normally do this, but I'm going to make a prediction: It's going to bomb. Why do I think this? First of all, I haven't met anybody who's shown the least amount of interest in seeing it, nor does anybody even really know what it's called. I've only ever heard of it referred to as "that Facebook movie." Also, I haven't seen any trailers, commercials, or ads for it. And, finally, who cares? Anybody with the least amount of interest in Facebook is on Facebook, where there are no ads for this movie anywhere.

That's all.

Game of Thrones Teaser

Here is the teaser for the upcoming HBO series based on George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. I am sure that this show is going to be amazing, since it is being produced by HBO, has an excellent cast, and is based on my favorite fantasy series (after Lord of the Rings, of course). But... I just wish Martin would finish the damn books already.

The first three novels in the series are amazing, while the fourth was just pretty good. The fourth book suffers in comparison to the opening trilogy because it was growing so long, it had to be split in two, but unfortunately all of the great characters were put into the second half, which still hasn't come out yet even though it's been almost five friggin' years. Maybe this HBO series will convince him to finish his damn series already. But maybe it'll just give him one more distraction that keeps him from writing. Also, I wish the series had been completed before any adaptations were made, if only because the influence of Hollywood and others on his work might force him to change the overall arc of his series.

But, all that considered, it's probably going to be an awesome show. But I'll probably never watch it because I don't have HBO and I loved the books so much there's no way any adaptation -- no matter how well done -- could live up. I've been burned too many times by comic book movies, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, and other that I just don't care anymore.

Meet the Spartans

Yeah, I watched this one too. What can I say? It was a Wednesday night and it was on FX. What, am I not gonna watch it? Well, if it had been up to my girlfriend Shannon, I guess I wouldn't have watched it, because she kept yelling at me to change the channel. But when nothing else was on, she finally relented. And I thought it was kinda funny. She disagreed, saying that it was, more or less, the worst movie ever made. I think we're both probably right.

When it comes to comedy movies, many people might mistakenly assume that I have "bad taste." I can understand this point of view (I did just admit to watching -- and liking -- Meet the Spartans), but I don't think it's entirely accurate. When it comes to comedies, I have an unspoken agreement with filmmakers: If all you want to do is make me laugh, chances are good I'll laugh. I guess what I'm saying is that I have a broad sense of humor and watch comedies because I like to laugh and enjoy jokes. I just don't understand why movies like this piss people off so much. Because they are bad? Because they aren't all that funny? Whatever. Then don't watch them. But, seriously, mention you watch a movie like Meet the Spartans, and 99% of the people who hear you will react like, "Why the hell did you watch that piece of crap?!" And those people, of course, never actually saw the movie.

Well, I saw it, and sure... it's a piece of crap. But it still made me laugh -- sparingly to be sure, but laugh I did -- and it mostly kept a smile on my face. It was just a dumb, silly, raunchy movie filled with poop and fart jokes. Anyway, I'd rather watch this again than something mean-spirited and pretentious like Juno or most Judd Apatow movies. There were enough fun little scenes that kept me laughing that I kept on watching -- like the scene where the Spartans go up against a bunch of street kids in a Yo mama contest, or where the Spartans take a break from fighting by getting some drinks at a Starbucks type shop in the Pass of Thermopylae.

Most of the jokes didn't work, of course. There were way too many references and "parodies" that were little more than copying (or merely mentioning) characters and scenes from popular culture with no real context or point of view other than just repetition. Like the scene where Venom and Sandman fought. How was that a parody of Spider-Man 3? All that happened was Venom and Sandman fought. There was nothing funny about it, although I'm not going to complain about seeing Carmen Electra in a skin-tight Venom suit. Shannon said that Electra looked old and bad, but I told her she was crazy. Then there were dozens upon dozens of characters showing up just to do bad impressions of popular figures, almost all of which were so bad the other characters actually had to say things like, "Shut up, Dane Cook," so you'd know who was being impersonated. There was one scene where king Xerxes (played by that gross fat guy from Borat -- kinda funny) brought out a monster to fight the Spartans, and it was actually a guy dressed up like Rocky. They panned the camera down to his trunks, where the name "Rocky" was printed on them in big letters, as though we didn't know that it was supposed to be Rocky. Thanks, guys who made Meet the Spartans. You really think your jokes are going to go over most people's heads?

And now I'll talk about the cast quickly, who didn't do anything all that spectacular or funny (like I said about, Carmen Electra was one of the main stars), but they still managed to walk away from this movie with most of their pride intact. The star of the film (who later starred on that awful Comedy Central show Krod Mandoon, or whatever it was called. See, even I have standards!), should've received an Oscar or something for all of the terrible dialogue he had to read, horrible jokes he had to recite, and embarrassing situations in which he found himself while still managing to get some laughs out of the audience. I don't know his name and I certainly don't think he was a great leading man or notable comic talent, but he made me laugh. I liked him. Just check out his delivery of this wookie joke and try to tell me you didn't laugh.

And then we had Kevin Sorbo, who is always funny and charming, but I'm mostly mentioning him to say that, at age 52, my boy still looks amazing and has a rockin' body. Nice work, Kev!

So, yeah. Meet the Spartans. Don't seek it out, pay money for it, or even sit down to watch it if you have anything the least bit pressing or engaging that you could do instead. But if you find yourself bored on a Wednesday night and it happens to be on FX, you could do worse than check it out. Just don't blame me for it!

IMDB

Is it just me or was the recent redesign to the IMDB the worst thing that's happened to the internet since Goatse?

That's all.

MacGruber

This one was all right. It was definitely funny, and there were a few times where I actually laughed out loud pretty hard, but it just wasn't so funny that I'd feel comfortable recommending it to anybody else. It wasn't as funny as I was hoping it would be, but it was probably as funny as I was expecting it to be. Anyway, long story short, it was funny. I paid a dollar to rent it and I felt satisfied that I got my money's worth. But had it been two dollars, I might've had more renter's remorse.

For those unaware, MacGruber was a film based on the long-running SNL skit where Will Forte plays a character based on MacGyver, only McGruber is mostly incompetent and a total asshole. It was a funny skit, that usually lasted about thirty seconds or go, and almost always (or just always?) ended with MacGruber blowing himself up somehow. Funny and often very clever. When adapting that concept to the big screen, they made the decision to expand it beyond just a McGyver parody and making it a lampoon of all big, 80s action movies. Just about every cliche is in here, from having the reluctant hero living out his life in a monastery to an absolutely brilliant montage sequence where MacGruber goes around the country, assembling his old of mercenaries. This was funny stuff.

Even more funny were the scenes where Will Forte was just allowed to talk and go off on tangents that served zero purpose. Forte is a gifted comedian who brought a lot to such a stupid, one-note character. And his chemistry with Ryan Phillipe and Kristen Wiig was great, although this was definitely Will Forte's movie which gave Wiig very little to do. This was unfortunate because Wiig is a hilarious performer, so she should've been given a bit more screen time, or at least been casting as something other than just another straight man to the crazy MacGruber. This movie was basically just Will Forte acting crazy while everybody else just looked confused and said he was crazy. A few more funny characters would've added a bit more comic interest.

But, at the end of the day, I laughed a lot. Maybe not as often or as hard as I wanted to, but laugh I did. MacGruber is a funny character, Val Kilmer gave a pretty good performance as the villain, and the jokes were really strange and raunchy and outrageous. Here's a sample piece of dialogue from the IMDB memorable quotes page:

MacGruber: Looks like you're keeping your bod pretty tight.
Frank Korver: You're looking pretty good yourself.
MacGruber: Well, everday's a workout when you gotta carry around a 20 pound python in your jeans.
Frank Korver: You and your dick comments.
MacGruber: It's fun to say them.
Frank Korver: It's fun to hear them.
MacGruber: That's why I say them.
Frank Korver: And that's why I listen.

If you thought that was funny, you'll think this movie was funny. I don't judge, because I thought it was funny. I also learned from the audio commentary that the above dialogue was all improvised. I'm not sure what that says about the people involved, but it probably says something.

Classic Review: Avengers West Coast #s 42-57

In March of 1989, John Byrne took over The West Coast Avengers as writer and penciller. This run (that spanned a year and a half and 17 issues), saw the death of the Vision, the resurrection of the original Human Torch, the total mental breakdown of the Scarlet Witch, the creation of the Great Lakes Avengers, and so much more. There was also a title change (to Avengers West Coast) and a couple of inter-company cross-over tie ins here and there. All in all, it was a fantastic comic book run that definitely holds up as one of my favorite runs from the early 90s, as well as one of my favorite runs by John Byrne in general.

Issue #42 starts with the disappearance of long-time Avenger The Vision, who at that point in his life was happily happily married to the Scarlet Witch and the father of her twin babies. That happiness didn't last long for either character, since he the Avengers quickly learned that he was kidnapped and dismantled completely. This was the start of the Witch's turmoil, and it was her descent into madness that really set the entire tone for Byrne's run. She was definitely at the forefront of every major storyline, and it was all brilliantly set up and well handled until, well, until Byrne was forced off the title and replaced with another creative team who mostly aborted his storyline. But we'll probably get to that later.

Byrne used the dismantling of the Vision not only as the catalyst for his storyline with the Scarlet Witch, but as an excuse to do some serious housecleaning as well. It was always firmly established that the Vision had been created from the body of the original Human Torch (who fought with Captain American in the Invaders way back in the 30s and 40s), but Byrne cleverly managed to retcon that and bringing the character back and having him join the team. It was clever and mostly well done, but all of the expository dialogue used to justify and explain how this came to be was somewhat awkward and heavy-handed, and it never really made sense why he was so quick to join the West Coast Avengers so soon after coming back to life after having been "dead" for decades. He doesn't want to go back home or look up any old relatives? He doesn't want to reconnect with Namor or Captain America? He's really fine with just shacking up in a house with Wonder Man, Hank Pym, and a bunch of other people he's never met or even heard of? But, whatever. It managed to work over all because Byrne is a clever writer and he did such a good job of making the Human Torch fit in, not only as an Avenger the others would want around, but as a character the reader wanted around as well.

An even better inclusion to the team, in my opinion, was having the US Agent forced on the West Coast Avengers by the US government. US Agent was also a favorite character of mine, and having him assigned to the team against the wishes of the other members created a lot of fun tension and friction. Also, I'm the kind of guy who likes to follow rules and has high expectations of those around me, so I always sympathized with US Agent's role in the team. I always liked it him and thought he was a great hero. Unfortunately, there was just too much else going on during this run, so US Agent didn't get time to shine as much as I would've liked. And then it wasn't very long before the next creative team got rid of him all together, a decision I never liked very much.

Also, if you are a huge fan of Tigra, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, or Vision, you wouldn't find a lot to love about these stories, since those characters are mostly pushed to the side in favor of the Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and Hank Pym. They got the most "screen time" for sure, which is fine with me because I love all of these characters, especially Pym and Wonder Man, but it did suck to have Hawkeye quit the team so abruptly and most vanish from the book. It was awesome seeing him as the leader of the Great Lakes Avengers, but that storyline went nowhere fast. I wonder if they wanted to spin that off into a new series. I can't remember whatever happened to that team, but I always enjoyed their stories. And Tigra was almost nonexistent, spending most of her time in cat form in a subplot that went absolutely nowhere. But that's ok because nobody's favorite character is Tigra.

One major problem with trying to read any extended run from the 90s is all of the inter-company crossovers that keep intersecting with very little intersection. One issue began after the events of the Atlantis Attacks cross-over ran through the entire Marvel Universe, effecting all of the characters, which made for a seriously abrupt shift between issues with very little explanation. And then, just a few issues after that, there was a major tie-in to the Acts of Vengeance company cross-over that wasn't set up at all and yet had its resolution in an episode of West Coast Avengers. If you aren't familiar with Acts of Vengeance or Atlantis Attacks, you'll be very confused, and the editors didn't help matters by attempting to add any footnotes or references.

But these comics work and remain well worth reading because John Byrne is a fantastic writer and one of the greatest comic book artists of all time. There is just something right about the way he draws super heroes. He gives them a sense of grandeur and personality, and his sense of pacing and design is perfect. The inking on these books is something of a mixed bag, however, with some really poor work done by Mike Machlan. His inks range from being ok to being down right ugly. Byrne finally inks himself on issue 49, and the contrast between his line work and Machlan's is striking. After that, Paul Ryan takes over, and he proves that he is just as good an inker as he is a penciller. The combination of Byrne's pencils and Ryan's inks is beautiful.

Byrne is also a wonderful comic book writer who keeps things interesting, exciting, and fresh. Byrne stories are always interesting and unique and wonderfully entertaining. I remember one letter writer in one of his books once referred to him as the master of the subplot, and it's very true. His stories are always full of foreshadowing and subplots that often don't play out until months down the line. Obviously, this is a problem when he is only on a book for a year or so and is unable to finish any of the subplots he sets up, but they are still fun to read. There was one subplot in this run that I'm pretty sure set up a plot that he later wrote for the regular Avengers comic. I'm not sure if he was planning on using it for West Coast but he left the title so soon, or if he actually intended to have a subplot in this book that played out in a different book.

Anyway, I loved this books as much now as I did when I first read them. John Byrne is a master of comic boo storytelling, and his run on West Coast Avengers was one of the high points of his career in my opinion. Check 'em out. This is good stuff.