The new year approaches, as does the next Magic: The Gathering expansion, Conflux, the second set in the Shards of Alara block. The spoiler is up at MTGSalvation.com, one of the largest and most accurate Magic fansites on the net.

Unlike most sets of Magic, which focus on the five colors of Magic cards (which correspond to the different requirements to use the cards) acting solo, or on two color combinations, Alara so far has focused on tri-color combos, each configuration representing a unique location in the Magic universe.

So far of what’s posted, 27 cards as of right now, there are some reprints as well as some fantastic new rares. Cards like Giltspire Avenger and Noble Hierarch are cards that I’m already going to add to my “You Bant Always Get What You Want” deck. This set will hopefully get players psyched for this set, as there is a lot of negative net and store chatter about Shards in comparison with the previously released blocks.

You’ve probably already seen this, but I think this is a great song. It’s festive, funny and these guys are really talented.

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas

I apologize for this post’s brevity, but I’m on the road for the holidays.

courtesy DC

The War is over. The Adversary deposed and the Homelands are in shambles. Ancient evils that the Empire had contained are now free, changing the status of magic and the Fables world. The first big change - the complete destruction of Fabletown.

It seems as though writer Bill Willingham spent years building up the characters and the status quo just so he could tear it apart. The real story is just beginning, Willingham claimed at San Diego Comic Con, and we can see what is going to happen: new enemies, new problems, Charming is dead, Boy Blue injured and a mechanical tiger leads a resistance of Jungle Book Fables with Mowgli.

What Vertigo books do in general, unlike DC or Marvel books, is change. You can see this in DC and Marvel’s constant story rebooting with franchises like Superman or Spider-man. There’s a formula and we have to stick to it. Willingham and other “graphic novel” writers write more like TV or movie writers, where things do change. Unlike shows like House or comics like Spider-man, where the status quo is rigidly enforced with the illusion of change, Fables progresses. The rigid formula shows aren’t bad of course, but after awhile of the same web-slinging and similar trial-by-error diagnosis wear a bit thin, and comics like Fables set up a formula to break it down, making the alteration much more satisfying and expected.

So what I’m saying, in the semi-words of The Simpsons‘ Comic Book Guy, is: “Best comic ever.”

Magic has announced the theme for their next Duel Deck: Divine vs. Demonic. Focusing on a presumably white and black colored deck, featuring Angels and Demons respectively, each deck will focus on those tribes. So far none of the cards have been released, but some contend that the card Akroma, Angel of Wrath will be in the deck due to some promo art that featured a purple-haired angel.

These decks will hopefully be as good as the past two special decks, and after seeing the fantastic new symbol for the set, I can’t wait to see these cards. I’m almost more excited for this set than for the second set in Shards of Alara, Conflux.

image courtesy Wizards of the Coast

With issue #14’s departure of long-time writer Judd Winick, Green Arrow and Black Canary has been taken over by writer Andrew Kreisberg. Is the series over or starting anew?

One of the things that Winick kept with the book was a consistent humorous chemistry that played out between the supporting cast, the Arrow family, and their interactions with the diverse community of heroes and villains that live in the DCU. Continuing almost breathlessly from Kevin Smith’s relaunch of the series, Winick’s run of this book saw the marriage of Green Arrow and Black Canary, plus redefined Arrow’s kids.

The brightly colorful book was one of my favorite DC titles, and I hate having a bias going into a series, but I admit I am already against this new writer because he’s not Winick. So far I don’t hate Kreisberg, though. This issue was a summary book, designed to get readers up to speed with what’s happened in the past, so as such couldn’t really do too much. Characters parted ways, sadly, as I love the new Speedy, but really there was not so much story as there was flashback. This is okay, of course, but not a strong indicator of the series’ future potential.

What I did like was the book didn’t suck. For a recap, it did a good job of keeping me reading and the dialog was humorous, reminiscent of Winick’s style. While nothing really pulled me in, probably due to my negative predisposition, the book didn’t push me away, either. I’m willing to give this book a chance.

They Call Me The Seeker

From the men who brought you Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess comes Legend of the Seeker, a new live-action fantasy series based on Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth series. Like Hercules and Xena, this is a straight to syndication show, so it’s on random networks at various times in the week.

I saw this on hulu.com and decided to give it a try, seeing as Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert were involved. After the first few episodes, I was not at all impressed. This is a generic fantasy - think watered down Lord of the Rings or D & D with a monster manual that is 10 pages long. Everything about this show is predictable, cliché and safe.

I won’t go into a large amount of details, listing grievance after grievance of how the show fails to be any thing other than Hercules without comedy. The show takes itself way too seriously, which you can’t really do in a show like this, where exposition runs rampant and slow mo battle scenes are the norm.

Sorry Mr. Goodkind, I hope they paid you a lot for the rights.

When It Reigns It Pours

Secret Invasion ended last week. I wish there was more to say about it than that, but that’s pretty much what happened. It ended abruptly, Wasp died, and then we quickly got away from that Skrull nonsense and jumped into Dark Reign mode, the next Marvel cross-title gimmick.

We should be used to this by now - the massive build up into the crossover and the quick deflation, which happened with House of M, Civil War and World War Hulk. And we should also be used to the way a new status quo is set.

Now this is probably due to Bendis’ style of writing, throwing several characters together and seeing what happens. But what we are continually seeing is another team or sets of teams thrown together, pulled by their respective stories and redefining Marvel due to the new situations they get thrust into. Of course that’s what always happens, I guess, but let’s look at the Illuminati, the New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Secret Warriors and now the Dark Reign team. These groups are just cobbled together for invented reasons, so that random and now important characters can bounce off of each other. Read the rest of this entry »

According to recent news, Bill Willingham’s comic epic, Fables, will be given the chance to wow the top ABC brass to see if the show could make it to air. Fables is about a world where fairy tales are real and live in our world. Forced from their otherworldly fairy tale dimensions, the Fables try to keep themselves hidden from us and the foe they have fled.

The series is one of the best comic books out there today, mixing spy thriller, comedy, romance, epic fantasy and political genres into one massive story that deals with the lives of several popular, less popular or never heard of fairy tale legends. While the story focuses primarily on the Big Bad Wolf, reformed of course, and Snow White, later we see characters like Little Boy Blue, King Cole, Beauty, Beast, The Frog Prince, and dozens of others take center stage.

Fables would make a great TV show in the current market due to this chemistry. Shows today focus on several characters (think Lost or Heroes, even Grey’s Anatomy has several players). More people means more drama and more story-driven conflict due to various interactions. This would be on top of the epic fantasy and political drama the external storylines Willigham crafted to guide the characters.

But of course, a pilot is just a first episode, meant to see if the show would be worth it in the long run. Fables the comic had a lot of mileage, but if we try to slow down the conflict to have a lot of star-studded drama scenes, would the show be a legitimate translation? Probably not, but then again, for this series, I’m willing to wait and see what we get.

Andy Richter, John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris and Scrubs‘ Sarah Chalke are a few of the stars that appear in the online exclusive musical, Prop 8, a tongue and cheek parody of the debate over gay marriage in California.

Written by Marc Shaiman of Hairspray fame and debuting on the comedy website Funny or Die, Prop 8 has already gathered a smattering of media attention due to its star studded cast and hilarious delivery, like Jack Black playing Jesus or Neil Patrick Harris appearing just because he’s Neil Patrick Harris.

Now of course this musical is biased towards one side of the debate, and arguably skews religious argument for their own agenda (like omitting New Testament examples), but the purpose of satire is to poke fun and laugh, which this short does. Check it out!