Halo Reach Spartan Gungnir Review

By Loran

As much as I’ve been enjoying the Reach toyline, there’s been one thing that’s been getting on my nerves: the lack of originality. Far too many of the multiplayer Spartans come in just one color without any special attachments or whatever. Heck, every Spartan in Series 6 is pretty much the same crap we’ve seen over and over again. Heck, we haven’t even been getting Spartans with different colored visors until recently. Still, once in awhile, one figure comes up that stands above the rest in both concept and execution, and quickly became one of my favorites in the entire line.

The Spartan Gungnir Custom is that such figure. While some of the armor sets have come with parts to make a Gungnir, this is the only one so far available in the single pack. It seems like McFarlane REALLY wanted to get creative with this one. Not only does he have the robot arm and extra ammunition, but he also uses the larger male body to give him more character. It’s this kind of ingenuity that seems to be lacking on some of the figures in this line, though it seems like they’re slowly starting to add them in.

Instead of the standard Gungnir helmet, McFarlane opted to use one of the enhanced versions. This is a pretty cool choice since most helmets in the toyline are just the standard version. Too bad they did it to one that you need a really high rank and lots of credits to get.

The inclusion of the robot arm is one of my favorite additions to this figure. It’s the same one Kat uses, and it surprisingly still looks good, if a bit thin. It adds a lot of character to the design, too. How’d he lose the arm? Did it get chopped off in a swordfight with an Elite? Did he lose it in a reactor explosion? That’s for you to decide.

Even the Sapper chest adds a lot of character to him. But as cool as it is, I don’t think it’s enough! I gave mine one of the extra ammo belts from the armor pack I reviewed a few weeks ago—makes him look truly overkill.

But if a robot arm and tons of ammunition wasn’t enough, they decided to give him Jorge’s body, making him the only other “big guy” in the line! He even got a medical pouch on his left thigh and extra shell casings on his left arm.

However, being the “big guy” has its drawbacks, as he can’t equip the jetpack like the regular male and female bodies. It’s unfortunate, but it wouldn’t be a McFarlane toy if he was perfect, now would he?

The Gungnir comes equipped with the same grenade that every other Spartan has, and the rocket launcher, a first for the Reach toyline. It’s a bit difficult to get into his hand at first, but not near-future like some of the Covenant weapons. The sight of the rocket launcher in the robot arm is just awesome. It’s difficult to get him to hold it in both hands, but it can be done.

If there’s one Halo Reach figure I’d recommend to anybody, it’s this one. He’s just so cool. He has his shortcomings like all others, but none of them outweigh the awesomeness of the rest of his design. If you want one for yourself, come into FPNYC for yours.

The Weekly Pulse – Dandy Issues

Check out what’s new and good in the world of comics in this week’s edition of The Weekly Pulse! Angel and Faith have some daddy issues, Aquaman visits a land without aqua, Justice League courts a green Lantern, Superman discovers the joys of murder, and Bart Simspon also has a comic.

Morgan Pielli’s Pile of Minis: Woman King and The Trials of Sir Christopher

For a some time now I’ve been considering expanding the scope of this column. What is a mini comic? They come in all shapes and sizes and are drawn by people as all levels of skill and success. Many are self published, but just as many are published by small imprints or other indie cartoonists. The idea that they come from people on the fringes of the medium; perhaps once true, is no longer the case. Though mini comics, in many ways, came out of ‘zine culture, the mini comic has transformed from an object to a genre. As such, it now encompasses a broad range of comics.

With that in mind, we will be looking today at two graphic novels from artist Colleen Frakes; Woman King and The Trials of Sir Christopher.  In the interest of full disclosure, Colleen Frakes was a classmate of mine at The Center from Cartoon Studies.

Additionally, I was part of the critique group in which Frakes workshopped Woman King, and I was a member of the studio where The Trials of Sir Christopher was drawn. I will endeavor to remain as objective as possible. However, I have had the unique privilege of seeing both of these books as various stages of completion, and will likely draw upon that for my review.

Woman King is a lush and powerful book. Like much of Frakes’ work, Woman King has a timeless fairy-tale quality to it. It is the story of a girl who is adopted by a tribe of bears and groomed to lead them in their war with men. Like the best fairy tales, there is as much blood as there is sweetness, and Frakes’ spare drawing style heightens the grim circumstances in some unexpected ways.

Read more ›

Sunday, Jan 29th at 8pm!!

Thursday Jan 26th VHS Trailer Show 3 @ 92Y Tribeca

This Thursday January 26th at 8PM the 92Y Tribeca Theater host their 3rd VHS Trailer Show!

Some of us refuse to let go of our VHS tapes.

One reason is that they have become a treasure trove of trailers for movies that time forgot. Being forced to scan past them each time you want to get to the feature, you end up developing an affection for these seemingly made-up movies. For the VHS Trailer Show, we present you with our favorite trailers, directly from VHS tapes. Armed with their favorites will be Cinebeasts, Matt Desiderio (Horror Boobs), Mark Freado (Junk Food Dinner), Sean Price Williams (DP for The Color Wheel), Cristina Cacioppo (92YTribeca’s film programmer), a special segment of “VHS Trailers That Should Have Been” from the Found Footage Festival and more.

We’ll also invite audience members to share their favorites, so if you’ve got a tape, cue it up!

Those f00ls good people over at the 92Y were dumb nice enough to let me join in on this wonderful event once again!  I thought my theme of nudity in trailers would have surely gotten my name crossed off of the future contributor list, even the extended Ilsa She Wolf of the SS trailer went over surprisingly well… or at least as good as it possibly could have.  So come on down and check out some insane trailers straight from VHS care of people like Mark Freado of Junk Food Dinner, The Found Footage Festival and me, Matt Desiderio, Forbidden Planet’s very own VHS expert.

VHS Trailer Show 3

Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2012, 8 pm

Venue: 92YTribeca SCREENING ROOM

Location: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street

BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE!

New and Notable- Daredevil by Mark Waid HC Volume 1

As I mentioned on our Twitter feed this past weekend, Wednesday the 25th is the official release day for the first collected HC of, hands down, my favorite mainstream superhero book since All Star Superman.  No hyperbole, no guff.  It’s that good.

That being said, if you’d like to follow my recommendation for this book you may pick up a copy of Daredevil Volume 1 here or you can pick one up at the shop and we can rap about its terrificness sometime.  Either way, Messrs. Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin have crafted a swell book for Marvel’s Mr. Magoo and it would behoove you to give this superlative work a chance.

Return of the Living Dead Tarman Action Figure In Stock

New from Amok Time and in stock now at Forbidden Planet NYC, it’s the TARMAN Deluxe action figure!

Danny Bonaduce vs VHS

Come out to the Spectacle Theater on Saturday at Midnight and hang with Lunchmeat’s Josh Schafer!

LUNCHMEAT is extremely proud to present one of the most amazing and obscure shot-on-video flicks ever to be laid to tape!! This SATURDAY, JANUARY 21st, at the hour of MIDNIGHT hoist your keister off the couch and get on down to SPECTACLE THEATER to experience the shot-on-video insanity that is AMERICA’S DEADLIEST HOME VIDEO! Feast your eyes on the UNCUT VHS PRINT and witness a lovelorn man named Doug (played by Danny Bonaduce PRE-STEROIDS! WHAT?!), and his trusty VHS video camera set out on an adventure across country, but when he runs into a gang of miscreant criminals, Doug finds himself wrapped in a slimy web of robbery, murder and sadism. Will Doug survive these misanthropic thugs and their suicidal lifestyle?! Will he get the girl?! Will he run out of batteries?!!You’ll have to watch this amazing piece of video obscurity to find out! Dig it, tapeheads!!

The Spectacle Theatre is located at 124 South 3rd & Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, NY! Check out Spectacle’s site for more info and take a look at all the other rad stuff they’re doing! I’ll be there watching, hanging, snacking and slinging some LUNCHMEAT goodies, so come on out get VHS-ified! Hope to see you there, Videovores!

The Weekly Pulse – January 18th 2012

New Batman, Supergirl, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, plus info on tomorrow’s big In-Store Signing and a ton more!

The Weekly Pulse – January 12th, 2012

Man-o-man, is this week ever a big one! Tons of new comics, plus some toys and some graphic novels thrown in!

In-Store Signing with Chad Hensley and Shade Rupe!

Thursday, January 19th at 7pm

come by Forbidden Planet NYC and meet

Chad Hensley of EsoTerra: The Journal of Extreme Culture

and

Shade Rupe of Dark Stars Rising!

*          *          *

About Chad Hensley and EsoTerra…

EsoTerra serves up a fringe gallery of malcontents, misanthropes, seekers, sorcerers, ecstatics, jesters, and visionaries, all of them living life on their own terms and taking a carnival mallet to the head of consensus normality. If you don’t find something among their ideas and endeavors to enhance your own life, then you’re probably beyond resuscitation already. Put this one on the shelf between the seminal Apocalypse Culture and the classics from Re/Search, in whose company it deservedly belongs.”
- Brian Hodge, author of World Of Hurt and Mad Dogs

“Chad Hensley’s EsoTerra fanzine was probably one of the greatest American sources of inspiration and mind fodder for the disgruntled subcultural youth of the ’90s. That’s why it’s actually so nice to flip through this newly published tome. Not only for the contents in themselves, but also for the time capsule aspect of it all. It is very much a zeitgeist-ish anthology, in what people write and talk about, and how they do it. But yet it still packs a punch. Many of the phenomena and people are still “cutting edge”. This truly wonderful anthology draws some pretty dark and disturbing elements out of our chaotic times and into the light.”
- Carl Abrahamsson, editor of The Fenris Wolf

“Chad Hensley’s magical magazine, EsoTerra, brought together rock stars and demons and scary visionary thinkers. It pulled no punches, presenting provocative glimpses into a new and improved consciousness. EsoTerra was like the Bible of Extreme Culture!”

- George Petros, author of Art That Kills

A crafted reporter on cultural extremes in music and art, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Chad Hensley saw several years of his writing on underground subjects as EsoTerra: The Journal of Extreme Culture, through Creation Books in 2011. Hensley’s work has appeared in such praised publications as Apocalypse Culture 2, Terrorizer, Spin, Rue Morgue, Seconds, Gauntlet, Hustler, and Juxtapoz. Making his home in New Orleans, his label “Last Hurrah Records” is proud to present Sean Yseault of White Zombie‘s new band Star & Dagger as their second vinyl release.

CHATTERBOX, this Saturday!

Saturday, January 14th at 11:30pm!

From SpectacleTheater.com…

Saturday / January 14th, Midnight
Chatterbox! (presented by Horror Boobs)
Directed by Tom DiSimone
1977, 73mins, English

Things start getting a bit problematic for Penelope when her vagina begins to voice it’s own opinion. When she visits a shrink about her singing pussy, he convinces her to embrace it’s talent and become a star.  Will Penelope ever be able to find true love while living in the shadow of her popular private parts? Not if she can’t zip her lips!

Horror Boob’s throws you another curve ball for this month’s musical midnights with 1977′s Chatterbox… It speaks for itself. Directed by Tom DeSimone who brought us many mammary filled memories with classics such as REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS and HELL NIGHT, and staring eager to show her beaver Candice Rialson of PETS and HOLLYWOOD BLVD fame.  The Tit Patrol couldn’t possibly keep this goofy take on France’s 1975 film PUSSY TALK concealed so prepare to bare witness to the genital insanity that is Chatterbox.

Horror Boobs is a collective devoted to bringing you the best in breasts from genre cinema! horrorboobs.com

Poultrygeist and Chripy at the Anthology Film Archives

Morgan Pielli’s Pile of Minis: Fuff #8 & Spider Monkey #1

Welcome to another edition of mini-comics reviews! Today’s selections were chosen without any sort of over-riding theme in mind, so let’s just jump right in and take a look at what we’ve got this week:

Fuff #8 by Jeffrey Lewis

Two months ago I had the great fortune of being asked to participate in a live comics reading at the KGBar in Manhattan. The lineup included many artists I admire, and they all did a killer job. One man, however, knocked it clean out of the park. That man was Jeffrey Lewis. Rather than merely read his comics off of a projector screen, Lewis arrived with a specially drawn cue-card-sized comic in one hand and his guitar in the other. He read, he sang, he engaged in a conversation with a pre-taped Jeffrey Lewis. Part indy artist and part rock star, Jeffrey Lewis is an odd mixture of influences and approaches.

Fuff #8 is the most recent in his long-running collection of beautifully drawn and eclectic short comics. The bulk of this collection is a series entitled “Stories My Dad Tells” that recount how Lewis’ father built a cabin in the woods of Maine. The tales are told Rashomon-style from the perspective of Lewis’ father, mother, a family friend, and even Madonna (whose life did intersect, however briefly, with that of Lewis’ parents). Each story presents the reader with a different type of unreliable narrator, and the omissions and inconsistencies therein serve to illustrate the relationships between the various storytellers.

As much as I enjoyed the “Stories My Dad Tells” tales, my favorite part of Fuff #8 was the “Meteorite Mite.” Couched in the guise of a coming-of-age superhero spoof, “Meteorite Mite” seems almost autobiographical of the author’s adolescence. If it’s not a thinly-veiled true account of childhood humiliation, this speaks even more to the talents of Lewis for creating lived-in and believable characters.

Either way, the story has great emotional weight to it. Apart from the superhero elements, “Meteorite Mite” paints a very realistic portrait of how boys begin to think about sex as they enter puberty; lacking the mental maturity and benefit of life experience needed to understand it.

Spider Monkey #1 by Jesse McManus with Austin English

This is a tough comic to describe. Both visually and story-wise, Spider Monkey #1 is a twisting, constantly shifting ribbon of a tale. Ostensibly the story of a boy who can talk to animals, the book moves further and further away from conventional narrative. The art, provided by Jesse McManus, has a disturbing quality to it that reminded me of a looser, more Tex Avery-inspired version of Jim Woodring. Cartoon physics blend with real-world consequences (except when they, um, don’t) to create an environment of constant unease. Austin English’s story bounds across the world that they have created as though he were laying railroad tracks in front of their own moving train. The end result is a story that reads like a nightmare or a nervous breakdown.

And yet, despite the extreme and elastic surreality of both writing and art, there is remarkable clarity to the book. The geography of the story is always clear; I never found myself unable to read a panel or understand where the characters are in a given space. Spider Monkey #1 is a high wire act. It is impressive to read, albeit a little overwhelming. This is only the start of a larger story and I will be interested to see if this careful balance can sustain itself without collapsing in on itself or becoming exhausting to the reader. Well worth checking out.

As always, everything I review can be found at Forbidden Planet NYC and on our website (www.FPNYC.com). In addition, you can find more from Jeffery Lewis at thejeffreylewissite.com, Jesse McManus at heyfu.com, and Austin English at http://windycornermag-austin.blogspot.com.

Happy stapling!

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Look for more from Morgan Pielli online at IndestructibleUniverse.com and follow him on Twitter at @UltraMorgnus

The Weekly Pulse – January 5th, 2012

DC Number Fives are all the rage this week, but let’s not forget the amazing Mud Man, the fantastic Feral, the always great Goon, and the favorite of the bunch: Fatale. Plus, there’s a new Marvel Point 1 to tide you over!