Talking about comic books, TV shows, movies, sports, and the numerous other pastimes that make us Gentlemen of Leisure.
Showing posts with label Sound on Sight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sound on Sight. Show all posts

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Force in Focus: Princess Leia #1-5


This week, I reviewed Marvel's recently-completed Princess Leia miniseries, by Mark Waid & Terry Dodson, for Sound on Sight. Highlights include new character, Evaan, and a story that puts Leia front and center, showing off her skills at both diplomacy and butt-kicking. Lowlights include an ending which fizzles out and art that doesn't really fit the book.

Read the entire review here, and if you've read the series as well, let me know what you thought in the comments of this post.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

To Better Know a Hero: Daredevil

Daredevil - Daredevil Real Name
Matthew “Matt” Murdock

First Appearance
Daredevil #1 April. 1964

Nicknames & Aliases
The Man Without Fear, Hornhead, DD, Mike Murdock, Ronin

Powers and Abilities
Daredevil’s senses are enhanced to super-human levels, meaning he can tell if a person is lying by listening to whether their heartbeat skips when they speak, or read a newspaper by running his fingers over the print and feeling the letters raised off the page. He also possesses a superhuman “radar” sense, which enables him to detect objects around him and warns him of danger.

Additionally, Daredevil is a highly-trained acrobat, gymnast, martial artist, and an accomplished lawyer.

Weaknesses and Achilles’ Heels
Well, he’s blind, so there’s that. He also has an inclination towards martyrdom and falling for women at the wrong times.

Read the rest of the post at Sound on Sight! 

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Last Week in Pop Culture #23

Around the Web

This week, I've got a slightly revised and updated version of my To Better Know a Hero post on Black Widow up on Sound on Sight. Check it out before you see Captain America: Winter Solider.

The Simpsons: The Winter of His Discontent


This felt like the warmed up leftovers of two plots (Homer embraces the lifestyle of the elderly, Bart is befriend by Nelson after helping him out) from two previous episodes ("The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" and "The Haw-Hawed Couple"), with an extended parody of The Warriors tagged onto the end.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Last Week in Pop Culture #22

Around the Web
Two more reviews from me at Sound on Sight: the penultimate chapter of the "X-Files Conspiracy" crossover, and the penultimate chapter of "Trial of Jean Grey". It was a penultimate week, apparently.

Also, as some of you may have seen on twitter, this week Dr. Bitz and I began recording the Saved By the Bell Reviewed podcast, along with Billy Superstar of the Full House Reviewed blog and Portland artist Carolyn Main.

We're still a few weeks away from going live (we want to get a few under our belt and work out the kinks before we start posting), but you can be sure I'll pimp the hell out of it here once it goes up. In the meantime, you can follow the show on twitter @sbtb_reviewed, and check out our under-construction tumblr here.  

The Simpsons: The Man Who Grew Too Much


Always nice to see a Sideshow Bob episode centered around something other than Bob trying to kill Bart. But let's not pretend the act one reveal of Sideshow Bob is at all shocking when Fox has been pimping his appearance in commercials all week.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

To Better Know a Hero: Jean Grey

JeanGreyFirst Appearance
X-Men #1, September 1963  

Nicknames and Aliases
Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, Red, Redd Dayspring  

Powers and Abilities
Jean is a mutant born with tremendous telepathic and telekinetic abilities, enabling her to read and control minds, project her thoughts, enter the Astral Plane, mentally lift and move objects, and fly by levitating herself, amongst others.

When augmented by the cosmic Phoenix force, her abilities increase exponentially, enabling her to telekinetically affect matter on a molecular level (changing her clothes with a thought, for example), travel through space, and transform matter into energy.  

Friends and Allies
Cyclops (Scott Summers, her husband), Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers, her daughter from an alternate future), Cable (Nathan Summers, her son born of her clone), Storm (Ororo Munroe, teammate and friend), Professor Xavier and the X-Men, John and Elaine Grey (her parents), Sara Grey (her sister), resurrection.

Click here to read the rest of the post.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Last Week in Pop Culture #17

Around the Web 
Just one piece for Sound on Sight from me this week, a review of Guardians of the Galaxy #11, the second first part of the "Trial of Jean Grey" crossover, which you can find here.

It was announced this week that Jeremy Irons has been cast as Alfred and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in the still-untitled sequel to Man of Steel (the one that will feature Ben Affleck as Batman). I like the casting, particularly Eisenberg. His Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network was already pretty Luthor-esque, and his casting suggests they're setting up Luthor as a tech-savvy media mogul type, which is a sensible modern interpretation of the character that still fits his roots, one which Eisenberg should nail.

That said, this is still a movie that is going to feature Batman and Wonder Woman (along with Alfred and Luthor and lord knows who else) as well as a Superman who did nothing to help the thousands (if not millions) of innocent people who died in the last movie and expressed zero remorse over that fact, so it's tough to get too excited about this casting, because even if Eisenberg kills it, he's still probably going to be in a mess of a movie. 

Far more importantly than all that, this week my good friend, fellow blogger and frequent commenter Sarah announced on her blog that she's signed with a literary agent. Cue the fanfare! As any fellow aspiring novelists knows, landing an agent is A BIG DEAL, the key step in getting your book published and becoming rich and famous and never having to do anything but write ever again, and I couldn't be happier for her. Rest assured, once her first book (which I've read, and is pretty effing fantastic) is available for purchase, I'll be pimping the hell out of it here, so no one'll miss out on a chance to buy it.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

To Better Know a Villain: Loki

LokiSimonsonReal Name
Loki Laufeyson

First Appearance
Venus #6, August 1949 (historical); Journey into Mystery #85, October 1962 (modern).  

Powers and Abilities Loki is an accomplished sorcerer, capable of using magic to shapeshift, teleport, fly, generate energy blasts, ensorcell individuals, and more.

Additionally, like most Asgardians, Loki possesses super-strength, durability, and longevity. He also has a genius-level intellect and is an adept liar and manipulator, capable of conceiving and enacting elaborate, multi-layered schemes.

Friends and Allies
The Enchantress, Skurge the Executioner, Fenris Wolf, Hela, and the Midgard Serpent, Tumblr.

Read the rest of the post here

Friday, January 17, 2014

Sound on Sight

As any of you who follow me on Twitter have seen (and if you don't follow me on Twitter - @AustinGorton, clever, I know - you should), this week I began contributing comic-related articles to Sound on Sight, a pop culture website that covers everything from films to TV shows to comics to games, in addition to hosting a plethora of podcasts.

I'll be contributing reviews and feature articles to their comic book section, and you can find my first two reviews, of X-Men Gold #1 and X-Files: Conspiracy #1, here and here, and all my Sound on Sight writings here. Moving forward, I'll also be posting links on this blog to future articles there.

Never fear: X-aminations are staying right here on Gentlemen of Leisure, as well as my weekly TV reviews and all that stuff (though my long-promised "To Better Know A Villain" post on Loki will likely end up on Sound on Sight). This is just another place to find my writing, doing something a little bit different than what I do here. I hope you check it out (and check out some other stuff on Sound on Sight as well - if you're any kind of Disney fan, I recommend the Mousterpiece Cinema podcast, which is what brought Sound on Sight to my attention in the first place).