Sylvia writes: I love the column. I was never a Marvel/DC collector when I was little but I did catch the TV shows, knew who the characters were, and this place is a happy chance to play catch-up by reading up on what was the best of those titles, their history, and how they fit into continuity. It's really helped me to pick out where in a storyline I want to start buying comics. May you keep writing for many, many more years to come.

I've fallen in love with Batman: The Animated series (I even ordered a copy of the Batman: Animated book by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. How do you grab scans from books like that without breaking the spines, man?) Do you know if there's any plans on putting out box sets of Gotham Knights and Batman Beyond? I really do want to see more of the animated Batman at work.

Reading here in the mailbag that you believe Return of the Joker is the best of the animated Batman movies has made me even more curious. "But 'Mask of the Phantasm' was so very good!" was my first reaction. "How can RotJ top that?"

2) I hope you're not sick of comments on DC: Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Just wanted to say you were spot on. It was actually the first JLA comic I ever read. I kept on asking myself why I should care about these characters who were either cold and arrogant or pathetic and obviously meant to represent "The Typical Comic Reader Who Will Surely Identify With Someone Being Called a Loser". Ugh. Give me a break.

Since Countdown to Infinite Crisis, I've been reading Grant Morrison's JLA run which captures exactly the team dynamic I thought the JLA would have: colorful, interesting characters defending the earth against equally colorful but sinister threats while remaining colleagues and friends. It had room for shake-ups and conflict within the team without being ridiculously cold-hearted or angst-ridden. The touches of pathos were used intermittently instead of *slathered* across the entire story and worked wonderfully. For example, I just bought the JLA "Rock of Ages" TPB today. Batman revealing that he had to mentally wrestle with one of the universe's most depraved torturers for eight years? A temporarily-sane Joker looking at what he'd done over the years in stunned shock and horror? Moments that lasted for only a handful of panels but had more of an emotional impact on me than all of DC's Countdown to Crisis did in its 80 pages. It's the classic "sometimes less is more" lesson that I wish more writers would take to heart.

3) You have about a hundred topics people have requested you to do, so of course I'm going to ask for one more. How about covering Tintin? My dad, in an amazing act of trust, turned over his collection to me and my brother when we were about 7 or 8 years old. Amazingly, they books are still intact and some of the happiest childhood memories of mine are of reading about the adventures of Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock before bedtimes. I don't know if there's enough for an entire column but maybe a "classic European comics" article would have room enough for a few moments spent with them?

As always, looking forwards to seeing what you cover next week.

Tipton: Thanks so much -- glad you're enjoying the column.

How do I scan books like that? Very, very carefully. There will be a box set of THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES by the end of the year, I believe. No word yet on more Superman, BATMAN BEYOND, JL or JLU.

I love Phantasm, but ROTJ, it's just unreal in places. I won't say another word until you've seen it.

While I still very much dislike the sacrifice of Blue Beetle, I am slowly turning around on INFINITE CRISIS, primarily because I see DC doing very smart things like hiring Morrison, Johns and Waid as continuity editors. I trust those guys to tell good stories.

Steven W. writes: Hi, I've been reading your columns at Movie Poop Shoot for a while now and quite honesty, your knowledge scares me! After reading so many of your articles, its hard for me to believe that my friends actually gush over the tiny tidbits of knowledge I've accumulated from a mere three years of comic book reading. If I only had a third of your know-how. Okay, usually gushing isn't my style but I've never encountered someone who knows the origin of Crazy Quilt, among other things. Anyway, I've only just decided that instead of scouring the internet for answers to my many comic-related questions, I should cut out the middle man and go straight to the source: Mr. Scott Tipton. Before I ask my question, I want to thank you for taking the time to read my e-mail, and more generally, for making your frightening knowledge available to the public.

Anyway, I've always been plagued by this series of questions, even before I made the jump into weekly collecting. They are questions from the world of Spider-Man. Now we all know that the original Green Goblin was Norman Osborn. We all know that his son, Harry, was the second Green Goblin. And beyond that, I've lost my grip on the Goblin gallery. After Harry died, was there another Green Goblin? Who was he, how did he become the Green Goblin? Were there more Green Goblins? Who's Hobgoblin? What's his deal? How many Hobgoblins are there? Who's the current Goblin? Did Norman come back from the dead, and for that matter, did Harry? Who's this Jack O' Lantern fellow? When am I gonna stop asking these questions? Now that I've sufficiently annoyed the crap out of you (sorry), all I'm asking is that you give me a chronological outline of each 'Goblin,' how they became Goblins, and where they stand now in the comics continuity. It sure would help me out a lot. Thanks in advance. You keep typing those columns, and I'll keep reading them.

Tipton: Okay, Steven, follow along here. It's Goblin time.

GREEN GOBLIN 1: Norman Osborn, until his death by Goblin-Glider
GREEN GOBLIN 2: Harry Osborn, briefly.
GREEN GOBLIN 3: Dr. Bart Hamilton, Harry's psychiatrist. Bart learns of the Goblin gear from Harry and embarks on a brief but unremarkable career as a supervillain.
HOBGOBLIN 1: Mysterious criminal who found one of Norman's labs and altered the equipment to become the Hobgoblin. At various points thought to be thug Lefty Donovan, Ned Leeds, and even Flash Thompson (poor Flash was framed), the mastermind behind all the various Hobgoblins turned out to be Roderick Kingsley, a criminally crooked fashion designer. Kingsley eventually gave up the identity and is currently in hiding in the Bahamas.
HOBGOBLIN 2: Jason Macendale, formerly the supervillain known as the Jack O'Lantern, took over the Hobgoblin identity after killing then-current Hobgoblin Ned Leeds, who had been brainwashed into the role by Kingsley. He later became a demonic creature, and after that was assassinated by Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin.

GREEN GOBLIN 2 returns: Harry first tries to use the Goblin identity as a superhero, then succumbs to insanity and becomes a villain, embarking on a reign of terror and psychological warfare with his best friend Peter Parker, until finally regaining his sanity and sacrificing his own life to save Spider-Man from a trap of his own devising.

GREEN GOBLIN 4: DAILY BUGLE reporter Ben Urich's young nephew Phil discovered another hidden cache of Goblin gear and decided to use it to become a superhero. Urich's Goblin suit was eventually trashed in combat, and he gave up the life. His solo series only lasted a year.

GREEN GOBLIN 1 returns: Norman revealed to have survived the Goblin-Glider impalement, and returns to bedevil Peter Parker anew.

Does that help?

J writes: i recently moved & as i restacked my books on my bookshelf, i noticed one i havent looked at in a long while. it's a 1982 black&white paperback titled "the untold legend of the batman" written by wein with art by byrne & aparo put out by TOR books. have you ever heard of this? if so, do know if this was a reprint of a comic or an original story? the panel layout/size (averages 1-2 panels per page) seems to indicate it was drawn for the paperback rather than a normal sized comic (it's proportioned more like a paperback as opposed to the shorter and fatter digest).

anyway, the book is a very nice read (although a little hokey by today's standards). the art by byrne is amazing. aparo's stuff looks great too (one of my top 3 or 4 batman artists). byrne's jumps out so much because it's so much better than anything he's put out in a long long time. the story is obviously out of continuity (pre-crisis and all that) but includes some bizarre revalations about the origin of batman. the story starts with the theft of the original batman suit (which was displayed in a very similar fashion to the jason todd costume many years later) and then jumps to the retelling of the origins of batman & friends. i won't bore you w/ a retelling of the story, but i'll hit on a couple points that differ from the generally accepted origin.

the original batman was thomas wayne who wore the suit to a costume party & later while defeating a mob boss as batman. as revenge, the mob boss hires joe chill to kill the waynes. after their death, bruce goes to live with his uncle philip & his housekeeper mrs. chilton. mrs chilton just so happens to be the mother of joe chill trying to make up for the wrongs of her son. bruce studies & trains to be the best. as a teen, he dons a robin costume to fight crime and partners with a gotham city police officer who teaches bruce to be a detective. bruce grows up to become batman (inspired by his father's costume) & later adopts dick grayson/robin. alfred shows up shortly after bruce adopts dick.

the story goes back & forth between flashback & present day as batman searches for the mystery theif. most of the supporting cast gets their origin told including robin, batgirl, alfred, comissioner gordon, jack edison (batman's mechanic), lucious fox, two-face, and the joker. once we jump back to the present for a final time, the story ends in a convient "tv mystery" way.

anyway, i guess that's a long winded way around to ask 1) have you heard of it? 2) do you know if was a reprint or an original story?

Tipton: That's a reprint of a miniseries from 1982 or ‘83. It was discussed last week in my Jim Aparo column, as it turns out…

Charles P. writes: Would it be possible to do "Legion of Superheroes" next? The reboot has got me excited and I was curious if you could somehow arrange to do the history of them.

Tipton: LEGION is so long and involved (and expensive -- it's the one Archive series I haven't bought in full, and there's about 12 volumes out there) that I haven't done it yet, but I probably will eventually.

Jake F. writes: I had two questions, actually.

1.) What, exactly, is the in-continuity accepted answer for Captain America's maintaining roughly the same age since WWII. I know he was at one point he was frozen in a block of ice and thawed out by the Avengers, but a friend told me that they'd changed that and he thought the Super Soldier serum had also been sort of like a one-time permanant Infinity Formula. I figured you might be able to help us out with that.

2.) Are you planning on running a Hellblazer article some point around the (probably sadly misguided) "Constantine" movie?

Tipton: Nope, no changes to Cap's origin. What happens is that as the decades go by, the time Cap spends in hibernation simply gets longer, so that his age roughly matches up with everyone else's. To put a finer point on it, initially, Cap resurfaced in 1963, and was said to have been in the ice for about twenty years. Nowadays, if everyone's their current age in 2005, and the Marvel Universe works on a roughly 10-year timeline, then Cap would have been in the ice from 1944 until about 1994 or so, about 50 years. It involves some pretty shaky math, so best not to think about it, really.

I'll do a Hellblazer article one of these days, but it wasn’t in time for the movie.

Dan F. writes: Coolest TV Moment for me was in that same movie, Starcrossed, but I personally felt it was when all of the JLA's identities were revealed to each other. Above Flash's protests, Batman just points at him, then points at Superman, and says "Wally West. Clark Kent." (and as he pulls off his own mask) "Bruce Wayne". It was my favorite moment in the original series.

Runner-up would probably have to be the "For The Man Who Has Everything" episode of JLU. Great stuff all around and, shockingly, probably the most violent.

Hopefully my fave moment next year will involve an all-JSA episode of the show. It's gotta happen.

Tipton: I was amazed at how much they got away with in FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING. Hardcore stuff. It was great.

Evan T. writes: First off, I want to commend you for giving DC: The New Frontier the props it deserves. This series came out of nowhere and blew me away with its quality. Seeing Batman and J'onn as dark detectives, making Hal Jordan interesting, the awesome (in every sense of the word) battle in the last issue...it was everything I could want in an overview of the DC universe. I'm not sure what the Challengers of the Unknown were doing in there, but other than that it was probably my favorite thing to come out all year.

The main reason I'm writing is about Green Lantern: Rebirth. It's a good series so far, and Geoff Johns is showing off his spot-on-and-seemingly-effortless writing again, but issue 3 has me worried. It's a great bit of retconning for the most part, even going so far as to tie in the grey streak in Hal's hair and why Kyle's ring is unaffected by yellow, but I'm worried Johns is going to cowtail to the die-hard silver age fans (you know, the ones who are so afraid of change they raise a stink any time their favorite hero so much as changes a thread on his costume) and absolve Hal of all blame. I always felt he was a bit of a boyscout who always saves the day, and while becoming a mass murderer was admittedly an extreme and unbelievable character change, it was still kind of fascinating to see one of the galaxy's greatest heroes become one of its greatest villains. Now we're told that he was never acting on his own, it was just the eeeeevil creature controlling his mind. Seeing as how even the grey streak in his hair is tied into Parallax's influence, it seems as if Rebirth is going to end with every change made to the character in the past 15 years being erased just to appease the fanboys. Your thoughts?

Tipton: I can only speak from my own experience, and I never bought into any of the stuff they had Jordan do -- it was horribly out of character and not at all in keeping with the character as conceived and developed over the previous three decades. So eliminating it all is fine by me.

However, what I think will stay is the guilt Jordan feels and the suspicion he receives from others, so those aspects won't be forgotten, and will remain a big part of the character and the series. Which I consider a fair way to handle it. We'll have to see.

Reginaroadie writes: I was just reading your wrap up best of 2004 comics list, and I noticed that you missed one comic book that I felt deserved a mention. This year, the magnificent independent comic book series BONE finally ended. And with that, my childhood as well. I had only recently in the last four years gotten back into comic books after a period of reading them as a kid. BONE has been the only comic book that has held a grip on my imagination more than any other comic and is the only constant in my life for the last ten years. It was a humbling experience for me to sit down and read the final issue of my favorite comic series. Everything about the last issues, and how it marvelously wrapped up everything in a funny, riveting and emotionally honest way, is a prime example on how to end a comic series on a high note. And still, I can't find it's praises anywhere.

Could you mention the last issue of Bone in a future article. Better yet, why don't you devote an entire Comics 101 column or more analyzing one of the biggest independent comics ever.

Tipton: True enough. It slipped under my radar because I still haven't had time to sit down to read my COMPLETE BONE paperback from cover to cover. When I do, I'm sure there'll be a column.

Adam R. writes: I've been reading your Comics 101 section on Movie Poop Shoot for quite some time I've finished reading your best of 2004 artical. I liked your picks for best comic-book movie(The Incredibles), best comic-book movie moment(Spider-Man 2), best recovery(Birds of Prey), book of the year(Identity Crisis) and comic MVP(Geoff Johns) but I was surprised to see you pick She Hulk as the best series of the year. Like yourself I've been a longtime fan of this great character ever since her run in the Avengers and the Fantastic Four(including her first comic-book series) and seeing her get a third series was great news for me and for alot of She Hulk fans. I have to agree with you that this is a breath of fresh air in Marvel with all their gloom and doom stories, this is perhaps the one book that leaves me with a smile on my face and offers some good laughes as well. My favorite issues of this run is #4 when Spider-man finally gets his day in court to sue JJJ for libel and the two part storyline where she takes on Champion to save the universe. Its this great writing by Dan Slott and artwork by Juan Bobillo and Paul Pelletier that proves that Jennifer Walters/She Hulk is not a knock off of her cousin Bruce Banner/Hulk.

Despite its slow run in the beginning Marvel has heard the buzz from fans and the critical praise it has gotten from all over to give it a relaunch in 2005 to show folks what they've been missing. I will be doing my part in promoting this relaunch along with the many fans of the jade goddess and I hope to see your next artical promoting it as well. Thank you once again for giving praise to this new series and keep up the great work.

Tipton: Yeah, I'm hoping the SHE-HULK re-launch is a big hit.

Shawn B. writes: I've emailed you quite a few times before, but I thought I'd throw you another one today. I was watching JLU this past weekend, and due to it being a pretty big ensemble episode, I was having a hard time remembering exactly who was who. I did my best to explain to my friends, and knew quite a few of them, but in the end I had to borrow someone's laptop and go back to the "Who's who in the JLU" articles you did a few weeks ago. Damn good stuff, worked perfectly. "Oh, The VIGILANTE!"

Tipton: That's awesome. Happy to help.

Michael H. writes: Once again, you've exceeded expectations. I smiled, I laughed, I closed my browser window when my co-workers started wondering what I was doing instead of working. Good times. And, by the way, thanks for sneaking this one in a day early.

On to the question: I've been trying for almost a week to come up with the name of the guy Lionel Luthor hired to murder his parents, and I'm stumped. Any ideas? It was a great name, and it's really bugging me that I can't come up with it, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks again, dude.

p.s. "transmogrified"! Ha! I love it!

Tipton: Wasn't it Morgan Edge? A name coined by the great Jack Kirby, by the way.

Charlie writes: With DC re-imaging and re-packaging a Captain Atom type character (Breach) this month, any chance you will ply your magic with a Captain Atom column? I know I asked you this before, just hopeful is all.

Tipton: I don't know about a full column, but he got some coverage when I covered the JLI. Maybe when his new Wildstorm series comes out…

TV RECOMMENDATIONS

Warning: If you've missed the last two episodes of HBO's SIX FEET UNDER, you might want to skip the section.

Chris G. writes: First off, standard disclaimers: I know that the tv recs are mostly a good excuse to do one-liners about various stuff on tv every week, and it's the first thing on the site that I read, so you must be doing something right.

But... IS Deckard a replicant?

Ridley Scott's director's cut makes it much less ambiguous, and I believe he's on record saying that Deckard is a replicant in that version. The 3-second unicorn dream (along with the unicorn origami Gaff leave's at Deckard's apartment) added to the director's cut (or, if you wish, restored) make that implication. However, I think there's some room for argument about Deckard's humanity in the original theatrical release.

Speaking of which, when is someone going to step up and put that on DVD? It's even way out of print on VHS, I don't think it's been available in any (legal) form for 10+ years. I don't so much prefer either version, just that I wish it was available if for no other reason than film history.

And, as always, perhaps I'm reading too much into a throwaway gag on a website with "poop" in it's name.

Ryall: I wish they'd put out that version on DVD, too, but I guess we can add that to the list of sci fi movies from the past that we'd love to see the original version of on DVD.

But back to the question--is Deckard a repliCAN or a repliCAN'T? I still say he is. That version of the movie just works better for me. I do prefer the ambiguity, though, rather than hearing the director come out and say for sure. What next, Quentin telling us what was in that suitcase?

Glen R. writes: This season of Six Feet Under has just been depressing. I know show about a funeral home is not exactly bright and sunny, but I think the show used to have more of a sense of humor about itself. The first few episodes everybody is just crazy, miserable, pissed, or all of the above. It seemed like they had lightened up a little bit, but killing off Nate I saw a big turn back to dark and depressing.

As always thanks for going through the garbage and helping us find a few good things to watch.

Ryall: It's weird, the bits with the mom lately have just been funny ("Let's go CAMPING. Right now!") and the same with Claire and her attempts to work a normal job. But the rest... man. It's all just so bleak--tough to pull for anyone when they're all so miserable. Somehow now Keith and David are the happiest couple on the show?

And killing Nate was just brutal. I guess because it was so well done, and because he always seemed the emotional center of the show, and since the acting is never anything less than great. Good thing there's Johnny "Drama" to help lighten the mood in ENTOURAGE right after.

Tom A. writes: Friday, August 5
VERONICA MARS -- 8 PM, CBS
CBS thinks some of you are UPN-phobic, so they're airing some episodes of this worthy show on the Tiffany Network to try to build its audience. I'd rather support UPN than CBS, but as long it gets you watching, it's fine with me.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT -- 8 PM, Fox
Fox is doing what they can to push this show, offering up four more back-to-back episodes tonight. Now the rest is up to you.

So...Which one is more worthy? I know, TIVO one, and watch the other. One step aheal of ya there, pal.

Ryall: Well, if pressed, I'd easily pick ARRESTED over VERONICA. I made a point to catch (and hype) ARRESTED all season long, whereas I only caught VERONICA, and liked it when I did, on occasion.

TV PILOT REVIEW

Rich S. writes: Don't forget to add Threshold on CBS to your list of duelling alien shows. The premise sounds disturbingly like Surface. But, on the other hand, it has Carla Gugino instead of Fat Hobbit.

Ryall: And it has Peter Dinklage, too. How'd a show with such a bad premise and lame effects land such a solid cast?

Also, BTW, don't forget that Battlestar: Galactica also beat Lost to the punch last year in episodic drama. Plus, it's been just as good so far this year. Baltar fragging the Lt. was a high point.

Ryall: Well, I was referring more to the network's slow embrace of the episode drams--the cable stations seem to do that very well.

Stapp the Insanity

"adparaiki" writes: READ ALL OF THIS

Ryall: Uh-oh.

Hey I read this and totally don't agree with anything you've said.

Ryall: Note: this person is talking about one of Josh Jabcuga's SQUIB CENTRAL columns from maybe two years ago. Guess he just finished reading it now.

Creed where a great band and did leave a legacy behind today. Many modern rock bands obvious influences are creed.

Ryall: Can you name one? One band that was influenced by this SEVEN MARY THREE rip-off? (I don't even want to give them enough credit to call them a PEARL JAM rip-off. If Pepsi is a rip-off of Coke, then CREED is Shasta, or maybe RC Cola.

DON'T COMPARE CREED TO PEARL JAM AGAIN.
Pearl jam are crap. They write crap music, crap lyrics and are crap musicians.
They have sold very few records and only ever got any publicity from comparing themselves to creed.

Ryall: Um... believe me, Eddie Vedder would never do or say anything to have his name mentioned in the same sentence as Scott Stapp's. As for sales figures... well, why bother. Carry on, my wayward son.

Creed are 10000000000 times better than pearl jam will ever be.

Look at the album sales of both bands creed have sold well over 30million from 3 albums which averages 10 million per each album. Look up pearl jam. They have just sold 30 million with all the albums they have produced which is alot more than 3 ok.

Find someone who plays guitar pick one song from random from pearl jam and one from creed and give them the sheet music to both songs.

You will find it takes them about 4 hours to play the creed song and about 5 minutes to play the pearl jam song.

ok lets compare lyrics writing ability from both bands.

"Alive"
(verse 1)
Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin' but a...
While you were sittin' home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin', sorry you didn't see him, but I'm glad we talked...

(chorus)

Oh I, oh, I'm still alive
Hey, I, I, oh, I'm still alive
Hey I, oh, I'm still alive
Hey...oh...

(verse 2)
Oh, she walks slowly, across a young man's room
She said I'm ready...for you
I can't remember anything to this very day
'Cept the look, the look...
Oh, you know where, now I can't see, I just stare...
I, I'm still alive

(chours):::
(Verse 3)
Well of course there is
You're still alive, she said
Oh, and do I deserve to be
Is that the question
And if so...if so...who answers...who answers...
(chorus)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

(ok it's shit) Just admit it

and heres the creed song

i'll pick an old one

My Own Prison

(verse 1)
A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn

(Chorus)
So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one

(Verse 2)
I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally

Interlude
Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time

(Chorus)::

Interlude 2
I cry out to God
Seeking only his decision
Gabriel stands and confirms
I've created my own prison

their we go just about 100000000 times better

ok lets compare each section of both songs

ok heres verse 1 from both songs

"Alive"

(verse 1)
Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin' but a...
While you were sittin' home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin', sorry you didn't see him, but I'm glad we talked...

My Own Prison

(verse 1)
A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn

ok well you can probably see the pearl jam song is shit and the creed one is really good. Better vocabulary, better rhyme scheme (the pearl jam song don't even rhyme) Theres more in the my own prison by creed

lol OMFG does eddie wanna fill space by saying oh hey II ne more. He can't even think of any more lyrics. lets have a word count lol. Its just shit isn't it.

But scott stapp's is great. Good vocabulary great imagery and rhyme scheme and great meaning behind the lyrics (great for adults) children probably wouldn't understand it.

DO I REALLY NEED TO GO ON

Ryall: Please, no. But I bet you do anyway.

ok alive atleast rhymes this time. Buts eddie has the vocabulary of a 9 year old. Its crap theres not much too it. A bit of imagery ok so this is the best from eddie so far but its still crap. Maybe his real lyrics got lost while he was busy surfing.

ok My own prison is much better. nothing more needs to be said really its obvious.

Ok so when was eddie planning to finish this or write some more lyrics. Theres about 3 words in the whole song lol.
Look he even realises this at the end by still trying to fill space "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" look he agrees with me that this song is shit.

ok yes creed is so much better alot more lyrics and better vocabulary, imagery, rhyme scheme. Face it, my own prison is just a better song. It's been said before "eddie vedded wishes he could write like SCOTT STAPP" and I bet he does.

Lets face it any one could write a better song than alive its crap.
I could write one in about 5 minutes better than that.
And so could my 13 year old sister lol.

so if you really want to write back because it finally sinks in that pearl jam is crap then ok. And creed was 10000000000000 the band pearl jam would ever be.

DON'T COMPARE CREED TO PEARL JAM or SCOTT STAPP to eddie vedder again.

And creed don't and never did sound anything like pearl jam.
There tone of voice was sometimes slightly similar but scott stapp is much better than eddie lyricly and vocaly. Eddie can only come up with 5 word songs and 3 note melodies OK.

And if you look back at pearl jam and creed. Listen to pearl jam before 1992 and after eddie sang differently to sound more like scott stapp (and not the other way around ok) Because creed's album and single sales were much better and pearl jam had to do something because their music isn't good enough to sell that much ok.

Ryall: This was very funny. Who knew Scott Stapp even read this site?

Daredevil: The Man Without Scruples

Grant C. writes: I could have stomached a lot of different interpretations of Daredevil.

I gleefully accepted Michael Clarke Duncan as Wilson Fisk, despite his ethnicity. He was right for the part, skin color or not.

I gladly accepted that a worldly lawyer like Matt Murdock could be played by someone as young as Affleck. Suspension of disbelief, and all that.

I cheerfully accepted that you can't possibly cast Colin Farrell and then put him in the classic Bullseye outfit, which would obscure his winning good looks.

But what I could NOT abide is the fact that Daredevil kills a guy in the first reel. Mr. Law & Justice Matt Murdock offs a guy, needlessly. And we're not even 10 minutes into the film yet.

He doesn't even kill him to prove something or drive home a point. He kills him to show the audience that Ben Affleck is actually a bad-ass, and because Mark Steven Johnson doesn't think that we'll get it any other way. It furthers no plot point. It’s never referred to again. It just… happened.

It really doesn't take a whole lot of effort to stay true to the spirit of a character, and I think Johnson missed a huge boat in that moment. It's akin to having Batman shoot a guy to death in the first 10 minutes of a movie -- it sets an unfortunate tone that this movie isn't about the comic fan.

He lost me in that first scene. And while I haven’t seen the Director’s Cut of the movie, if that scene remains, there’s really little reason to.

Ryall: I agree that that scene felt very wrong to me, too. It was like Johnson read Frank Miller's run on the comic, and tried his best to darken things up in a similar fasion, but missed the entire point of what Miller had done on the book. In the comic, DD agonized over pulling Bullseye off the subway tracks and getting him help for his brain tumor, knowing that Bullseye might kill again. But like he says then "I'm not a murderer, and I'm not God." He agonizes over Elektra's choice of career, and he gets pushed so far he plays Russian roulette with a helpless Bullseye before finally accepting that "his gun has no bullets." He's not a killer. In the movie, the point seemed to be that he was already so on edge, so driven for revenge that he'd let a criminal die, and he was eventually humanized by his... girlfriend-turned-assassin? Huh. Or maybe he let that "Quesada" character die because he got early word about how lame House of M was going to be. Not sure--I haven't seen the director's cut yet.

Links of the Week

Courtesy of Josh S., who writes: Hey Chris, not sure if you were a fan of the classic Mike Tyson Punchout video game or not, but if you were, you'll love this short film called The Return of Little Mac. It was made by a couple of young screenwriters in LA - Dan Rubin and Bennett Webber - and is really funny.

Seems like something the Poop Shoot readers would enjoy, though I'm not sure where on your site you would post it. If you like it and want to post something about it on the site, that would be great. Thanks.

http://us.share.geocities.com/danrubinsemail/ReturnofLittleMac.mp4

And from Pete M., a suggestion of a pinch-reviewer if we ever need one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/a3ewlafia09sd/ref=cm_cr_auth/103-9481427-4448601?%5fencoding=utf8

Photos of the Week

Ryall: Some images from the upcoming CREEPSHOW 3. That's right, CREEPSHOW 3.

Ryall: And coming soon from Brian Lynch and GUN FU's Joey Mason, MONKEY MAN 2-D, the comic book! The original cover and the variant:

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